{"id":103412,"date":"2020-06-11T16:37:23","date_gmt":"2020-06-11T23:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=103412"},"modified":"2020-06-11T16:37:23","modified_gmt":"2020-06-11T23:37:23","slug":"nautical-tourists-are-badly-treated-in-galle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/06\/11\/nautical-tourists-are-badly-treated-in-galle\/","title":{"rendered":"Nautical tourists are badly treated in Galle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Sarath Obeysekera\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
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Photos illustrated here show Galle Harbour with several\nyachts owned by foreign sailing tourists who are in Sri Lanka during this lull\ntourist period <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Next to the yacht park in the Harbour Is the building which\nis a  yacht repair facility established in 2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This project was abandoned in 2015 by the foreign investor with local participation due to various reasons in the country at that time\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local partners tried several years to recommence but four\nministers who were in charge the port since that time never wanted it to be\nrevived When I personally met them and proposed various ways of reviving the\nyacht repair yard in smaller scale    Ministers were not willing to\nhelp due to reasons you can always guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One minister called me  Panditaya when I was persistent\nthat it is a waste of a valuable space <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Southern area development minister was approached once again and he gave many excuses not to allow it. At one point I shook my head due to sheer frustration and dismay and \u00a0I was severely reprimanded by the minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I pass by the Galle port I feel sad that our \u00a0country cannot go forward because of these type of short-sighted ministers\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today building which was purchased by investors from the \u00a0Port is standing idle for six years and finally, last week has taken over for by the Navy for Corona quarantine per purpose\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now you can see the garbage lying in the Harbour and lack of basic facilities. Foreign yacht owners were treated badly by customs and Port with no food supplies and other basic needs\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is unfortunate that the Tourist Board and SLPA do not understand the potential of Galle as a Tourist destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have to do something about developing nautical tourism\nand attract more foreign Income during these lean days <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tourist Board once asked us what is Nautical Tourism when we met them to explain \u00a0they said that they know only about tourist arriving by air and going to beach\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is paramount that The president takes immediate action\nand develop Galle  port firstly by removing the scrap barge originally\nimported by Mundo Gas and now obstructing the port\u2019s valuable berthing\nspace <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This mammoth ugly scrap barge is  berthed for over 16\nyears which can sink at any moment <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This barge was deployed with the connivance of the minister at that time and now trying to keep mum about it\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new minister can do a few things to develop Galle .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast track expansion of Galle Marina project with state of the\nart facilities to attract tourists <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remove the scrap barge and cement bagging plant next to the pier ( again allowed by a minister which is an eyesore)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restart the yacht repair yard<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Establish a tourist office to help the yacht owners\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allow the private sector to develop social entertainment in Galle Harbour or in vicinity especially in Galle Port\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simplify custom and Security Procedures and allow free movement of tourists to Galke Port to spend \u00a0the day\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Sarath Obeysekera <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Sarath Obeysekera\u00a0 Photos illustrated here show Galle Harbour with several yachts owned by foreign sailing tourists who are in Sri Lanka during this lull tourist period  Next to the yacht park in the Harbour Is the building which is a  yacht repair facility established in 2014 This project was abandoned in 2015 by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-sarath-obeysekera"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}