Sri Lanka Tourism bagged an award for its Travel Inquiry Management System (TIMS), under the Public Sector category at the e-Swabhimani Award 2018 organised by the Information Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) at the Galle Face Hotel recently.
“The Travel Inquiry Management System is a unique platform designed by the Tourism Authority for travel agents,” Tourism Development Authority ICT Director Udana Wickremasinghe said.
“The platform drives businesses to travel agents as travel leads. This reduces the lead acquisition cost for Sri Lanka and amplifies the requests from travellers who wish to visit the country,” he said. All agents listed in it are registered under the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority which ensures that the agents renew their licence in a timely manner since the platform is connected to an SLTDA licensing platform. The platform has no levy or fee for registration.
The TIMS fulfills a void in the tourism industry in the country which needs to increase its tourist arrivals to meet targets, a spokesman for the Authority said. According to the TIMs process, all visitors to the www.srilanka. travel (national travel portal) site are prompted to use the platform before leaving the webpage.
All registered travel agents with updated licenses will receive inquiries and only the fastest six responses will be shown to the traveller. The traveller is free to resubmit their query should they wish to see more options.