The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, Sri Lanka's top-most body handling tourism, yesterday slammed the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce saying the Chamber's recent report on the country's tourism statistics was inaccurate and unsubstantiated.

The CCC, in a recent reserach report titled 'on “Troubling Numbers: Can Sri Lanka‘s Tourism Sector Sustain its Growth”, said the methodology adopted to assess the country's tourism statistics was wrong. 

The SLTDA, in response, said, there was a serious issue of validity in generalizing the research findings to the tourism industry of Sri Lanka, given the fact that the sample consists of only 15 in depth interviews with industry leaders and a survey of 37 industry players from limited fields whereas the tourism industry consists of 3,549 registered establishments (with SLTDA) including registered accommodations, travel agencies, restaurants, spice gardens, tourist shops etc.

"Furthermore, there is no indication of these 37 industry players though the list of industry leaders has been provided. Therefore, there is a serious flaw in the methodology used for the study, which brings the authenticity of the “study” into serious question. In other words, the selection of sample and the sample size does not indicate the application of accepted scientific methods. On the surface, the content of the report seems to be a manifestation of personal opinion of the few industry stakeholders consulted," the SLTDA statement said. 

"Constructive evaluation is a necessary component to evaluate and improve the performance of an institution or an industry. Yet these should be based on authentic and credible information. In the absence of credibility such evaluations can be considered as assessments that lack rigour. We would also like to bring to your notice that the Special Committee Report on Revisions of New Tourism Law (2006) highlighted that both UNWTO and PATA have recognized the Sri Lanka Tourism’s basic tourism data system as one of the best systems in the world. Further this system continues to improve with modern techniques for collating tourist information," it also added. 

"A closer look at the figures reveals that Sri Lanka has the highest average percentage change from 2008 to 2016 which indicates to the fact that Sri Lanka has a sound industry when compared to other countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and India which maintains a robust industry. A considerable growth can be seen from 2009-2016. Therefore, when considered the percentage change it is clear that Sri Lanka has achieved the highest average percentage growth of 18.4 % among the countries compared. Further, Sri Lanka has achieved the highest average percentage change of increase of arrivals in 2009 and 2016, compared with the same countries in the list.  Therefore, it is incorrect and misleading to conclude that Sri Lanka has fallen behind without a valid base to support the argument," it also added. 

The SLTDA said scientific method in research is a systematic approach to researching questions and problems through objective and accurate observation, collection and analysis of data, direct experimentation and replication of these procedures.

"Yet it is clearly evident that the research is subjective and biased," the Sri Lankan tourism body said.