News
Intrepid Travel Chairman and Co-Founder makes special visit to Lanka to share future responsible tourism growth plans
Chairman and Co-Founder of Intrepid Travel, Darrell Wade has made a special visit to Sri Lanka to highlight the need for sustainable growth and the importance of Sri Lanka to Intrepid’s 2030 strategy.
On 25th March evening, Intrepid Colombo hosted an evening fellowship to discuss Intrepid’s 2030 strategy and commitment to Sri Lanka. Esteemed guests, such as Priantha Fernando Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, representatives from the Australian High Commission in Sri Lanka, senior officials from Sri Lanka’s tourism, industry partners, development agencies, and members of the media were in attendance along with Wade.
Sri Lanka currently employs over 240 staff and 30 local trip leaders, being of one of the largest offices for Intrepid. Intrepid operates 11 trips across the country. In 2023, it supported 1,200 travellers to explore Sri Lanka in a conscious manner. However, in 2024, Sri Lanka is growing at a rate of over 375 percent and is expected to carry over 4,500 customers. This figure surpasses the DMC’s best year back in pre-covid 2019 (3,500 customers) and the operation has ambitious plans to bring over 15,000 customers to Sri Lanka by 2030.
Darrell’s visit serves as a reaffirmation of Intrepid’s commitment to Sri Lanka within its 2030 strategy. “Our commitment entails further strengthening the capabilities of the Colombo Centre of Excellence. We will achieve this by fostering greater economic growth in Sri Lanka, supporting a vibrant tourism industry and engaging in local community philanthropy,” said Poornaka Delpachitra, Country General Manager, Sri Lanka.
In Sri Lanka, the Intrepid Foundation has been working with Zero Plastic Movement for the past two years to create a behavioural change among citizens and institutions to reduce plastic waste while building a demand for plastic alternatives. “Our support of Zero Plastic Movement is indicative of our commitment to ensuring the growth of responsible travel in Sri Lanka, and the world at large” shared Delpachitra.
The Paddy Marketing Board has approximately 115,000 metric tonnes of paddy stocks purchased from farmers, which are currently stored in the Board’s warehouses, and it has been planned to retain a sufficient buffer stock from these reserves and sell the remaining quantity in order to provide the necessary storage space and financial resources for the purchase of paddy from farmers during the upcoming Yala season.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation to sell the aforementioned paddy stocks
following a formal tender procedure.
The Promotion of Export Agriculture Act, No. 46 of 1992 provides the legal provisions for regulating and promoting the export agriculture sector in this country.
Taking into consideration administrative changes and sectoral developments that have taken place over time, approval was granted at the Cabinet Meetings held on 2023-09-04 and 2025-08-11 to amend the said Act, which has not been updated for over 30 years.
The proposed amendments are intended to amend the designations of the Head of the Department of Export Agriculture and other officials, and to provide a clearer definition of the term “the export agricultural crop.”
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation to publish in the Government Gazette the Draft Export Agriculture Promotion (Amendment) Bill, prepared in all three languages by the Legal Draftsman to amend the Export Agriculture Promotion Act, No. 46 of 1992, and thereafter submit the same to Parliament for its concurrence
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