Restaurant Day / Dinner Cruiser
Introduction
The island nation, Sri Lanka located in the Indian Ocean is blessed with the nature for ideal destination for tourism industry for local and foreign nature lovers. The industry has already taken steps for firm growth to achieve sustainable development phase within the next few years, based on the strategic direction determined by the new government.
On the other hand, steps have been taken to improve the quality of tourism products by investing on the infrastructure developments. The tourism information centers will also be strengthened for better serving the travelers. Local media campaigns, new product developments, niche segments developments have been implemented as per the strategy.
Goal and the Objectives
The coastal zone of the island is one of the most attractive locations of the country from the view points of aesthetic value and biodiversity. Therefore it is planned to make use of this environmental profile of high dense for the attraction of local people and foreign tourists in the promotion of social functions of broader spectrum with a view to enhance niche marketing. It is also expected to provide a variety of facilities to acquire experience in the arena of pleasure.
- Provide an attractive venue in an aquatic environment for local wedding ceremonies with more or higher facilities than star grade hotel located on the land.
- Make available a venue with all sort of facilities for local and international events such as seminars, conferences, workshops, brainstorming sessions, meetings and other kind of social functions.
- Provide facilities for day and night social functions especially for foreign tourists who visit Sri Lanka.
- Support the implementation of tourism development plan of the government and thereby enhance foreign income of the island.
- Sea voyages for interested parties coupled with picnics and pilgrimages, targeting the sacred places located in the southern, northern and eastern provinces.
- The cruiser vessel will be an attractive venue for Ayurvedic treatment such as “Puncha Karma” for foreign tourists who are looking for such facility.
- The cruiser vessel will design its programmes in such a way to make available employment opportunities for local youths and thereby support government to minimize unemployment problem.
Methodology
This will be implemented with the blessings of the government under the guidance of Tourism Development Authority, Marine Environment Prevention Authority and the Ministry of Defense of the island. The project will also be operated with the close supervision of Sri Lanka Navy ,Police and SL Customs.
The cultural dancing programs organized by the project will also attract tourists and they will be exposed to different atmosphere of the cosmopolitan country which experiences array of cultural differences from one another. The cruiser will be anchored in the sea about one to ten kilometers away from the sea coast on the south- west coast of the island .According to the monsoons the vessel will be moved to the east coast or to the west coast of the island to ensure safety of the user communities and the vessel itself.
Justification
It is very clear that within the next few years to come, tourism industry will become a sustainable sector in the Sri Lankan economy being the top GDP contributor within next few years. Sri Lanka will adopt a concerted and coordinated approach linking private and public sector and all stakeholders, to assess policies that govern future industry development and provide knowledge to guide successful and sustainable Travel & Tourism strategy for the country. With all these it is very clear that within the next few years to come, tourism industry will become a sustainable sector in the Sri Lankan economy being the top GDP contributor within next few years.
