Sri Lanka tourism office grades restaurants in Colombo
Presentation of a Certificate by the Minister to a Colombo restaurant owner
June 29, 2017 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLDA) has launched a project to encourage upgrading of food safety, hygiene and services of places supplying meals for foreign and local tourists.
The project named “Certification Scheme for Tourist Friendly Eating Places” is carried out with the participation of the Health Ministry and Colombo Municipal Council.
SLTDA said it plans to expand this project, initially launched within Colombo Municipality limits, to cover suburbs of Colombo.
Under the second phase of the project, restaurants in Kandy and Galle will be certified. Starting in early May 2017, SLTDA began inspection visits of eateries in Colombo.
Based upon the inspection scores, 25 locations in Colombo Municipal Council area were selected for certification.
Two types of certification are granted in these places with ‘A’ and ‘B’ grades. The Certification awarding ceremony was held last Tuesday at the Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management.
“If we are to sustain the growth of our tourism industry, it is extremely important that we offer quality food and beverage services for tourists and this project is a step in the right direction in this regard,” Tourism Development Minister John Amaratunga said.
“While some Sri Lankan restaurants are among the best in the world having won international recognition, there is the other end of the spectrum which is not up to the mark. We have to raise the standards of these places.”
Sri Lanka Tourism industry has progressed significantly over last five decades to receive an all-time high of two million annual tourist arrivals at the end of the year 2016.
“Our objective is to make sure that tourists enjoy remarkable experiences during their stay in Sri Lanka,” Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority Paddy Withana said.
Colombo, being the island’s capital city, is a famous destination among both foreign and local tourists.
“We need dynamic strategies to improve the standards and quality of the services offered to tourists. The project also aims to cover popular small eating places in Kandy and Gall in the near future.”
By participating in this project, the relevant eateries will get the advantage of supplying clean, hygienically prepared meals, and will be able to obtain more recognition in order to create more demand.