The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), entered an MOU with the Australian Government-funded Skills for Inclusive Growth Program (S4IG) managed by Palladium International Group, towards several strategic areas of corporation.
S4IG is a program of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in accordance with the terms of a Subsidiary Agreement signed on 31 March 2022 between DFAT and the Sri Lankan State Ministry of Skills Development, Vocational Training, Research, and Innovations.
The parties agreed on the cooperation framework to support key strategic initiatives including revitalizing national tour guides operations, to test destination development initiatives that engage visitors within rural and remote communities, initiatives to improve the performance of tourism MSME businesses.
By signing the MoU, SLTDA and S4IG will review and revise practice standards, codes of conduct, and support skill training for tour guides and encourage ongoing professional development to improve product quality and services. This includes ensuring training is aligned with industry and government standards. This professional development initiative shall include selected modules in E-Tourism (especially E-operation), content creation, photography and video animation, interpretation skills, health and safety and customer care.
Further, S4IG will support the development of a program for women tour guides with industry partners.
This MoU enables the development of new training modules and materials to enhance tour guiding services.
S4IG further aims to collaborate with SLTDA to create promotional strategies to attract individuals among the tourism MSMEs to improve skills in e-marketing.
Innovative initiatives including collaborations with private entrepreneurs on a gamification and virtual tourism prototype in North Central Province and the Eastern Province also forms part and parcel of this collaboration framework.
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