Introduction

Tourism is a tremendous way of creating a country's foreign exchange earnings. Sri Lanka as a rich nation with a wealth of ancient cultural values has paid particular attention to the tourism industry. Ruhunu Tourism Bureau can be mentioned as the only government agency that works to promote the tourism industry in the Southern Province, helping the country's efforts to attract tourists of the world to our country.

The  main objective of the Ruhunu Tourism Bureau is to promote tourism in the Southern province in accordance with the national plans and policies relevant to the tourist industry .This will focus on uplifting, especially domestic tourism, and the promotion of foreign tourism. Under this, assistance will be provided to promote travel services in the Southern Province, to identify new tourist sites, to promote infrastructure development, human resource development related to the field, and to promote tourism and tourism related organizations and stakeholders. Ruhuna Tourism Bureau has implemented projects to promote tourism in the Southern Province in year 2016 and 2017 at a cost approximately Rs.140 million.

Training of Tourist Guides to provide a quality services to both local and foreign tourists visiting the southern province, is carrying out annually and in year 2016, 37 trainees have been trained and licensed. As a result of the training of Tourist Guides which aims to provide accurate information and to minimize the inconvenience to tourists, we are pleased to provide a solution to the issue of unemployment and a better and quality service for tourists arriving in the South.