Sri Lanka
Project Year: 2020
Funding: German Committee for Disaster Reduction (DKKV), German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ)
Partners: Sustain Sri Lanka
Contact: Dr. Bijan Khazai
COVID-READY
Government cooperation
Standards Development
Training and Capacity Building
In a project funded by the German Committee for Disaster Reduction (DKKV) and commissioned by German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), a number of technical assistance services were provided by Hotel Resilient to support the tourism industry in Sri Lanka addressing the COVID-19 crisis. The focus was on the development of practical guidelines to support small and medium-sized hotels in Sri Lanka in implementing the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) health and safety protocols based on an intensive examination of the needs and challenges of the SME sector.
Hotel Resilient partnered with Sustain Sri Lanka, a coalition of small and medium tourism operators in Sri Lanka focused on sustainable solutions, and conducted several roundtable discussions with members of Sustain Sri Lanka as well as SLTDA to discuss open questions and implementation difficulties. The result of these intensive discussions was a COVID-READY Guidebook which provides SME operators with easy to follow operating procedures, checklists and signage that operators can use to prepare themselves for operating in a Covid-19 environment and successfully pass the audit conducted by SLTDA and obtain certification, which allows them to take bookings from international travellers.
A copy of the Guidebook is available to all Sustain Sri Lanka members.