Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) and Urban Development Authority (UDA) embarked on a mutual partnership last week to prepare Tourism Development Master Plans for six identified areas across the country, SLTDA announced today. Through this initiative certain areas will be identified as ‘tourism development zones’ and provided with specific guidelines for tourism development and tourist-related activities, in order to fully utilize these landscapes for the benefit of the industry. The zoning plans are to be prepared in two (2) phases within 18 months, with Phase I to include Ella, Arugam Bay, Kalpitiya and Nuwara Eliya while Phase II would include Beruwala, Hikkaduwa and Pinnawala. The objective of this initiative is to set specific guidelines for tourism development and for tourism-related activities to avoid ad-hoc tourism development and to avoid undesirable activities and to encourage thematic developments catering to specific tourist segments and develop a proper monitoring mechanism to ensure sustainability. "With the increased tourist arrivals various tourism related activities are mushrooming in around popular tourist destinations. Most of these activities are developed in an irresponsible manner in the absence of proper development guidelines in existing and emerging tourism hubs. Such developments put invaluable cultural and natural assets at severe risk of degradation. At the same time, there are other locations, of which the potentials have yet to be properly explored for the development of tourism-related activities, " SLTDA said in a statement. It added that in the current economic landscape of the Asian region, Sri Lanka has a great potential to develop its tourism industry, but the tourism-related infrastructure, the level of services provided and the environmental quality of destinations are yet to achieve its full potential. S. Hettiarachchi, Secretary of Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Christian Religious Affairs, SLTDA Chairman, Kishu Gomes and Director General, Upali Rathnayake, UDA Chairman, Dr. Jagath Munasinghe and Janak Ranaweera, Director Western Province, Research and development were in attendance at the signing event.