Palitha Gurusinghe, Chairman, Sri Lanka Eco Tours, currently working as a Consultant for the Ministry of Tourism Sri Lanka, for the Tourism Project funded by Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) One of the objectives of this project is to attract Japanese tourists to Sri Lanka.
Palitha has been a close family friend of Japanese families for more than 25 (twenty five) years.
In fact the Head Office of Sri Lanka Eco Tours is located at a lake resort named ‘Atsumi Holiday Resort’, respectfully named after Atsumi family, based in Chiba, Japan. Incidentally, Atsumi family has named their summer resort located in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, as ‘Palitha Huet’
Goji Atsumi is a retired Manager of Chiba Swimming and Tennis Club located in Yothsukaido and his wife is a family lawyer based in Chiba. In May, 2006, they visited Sri Lanka with some of their friends belong to the ‘Story Telling Club’, based in Chiba, Japan. These Japanese friends are ardent supporters of the Community Based Tourism Projects initiated by Sri Lanka Ecotourism Foundation. In fact, Atsumi family raised good amount of funds among their friends to support tsunami affected children in the south coast of Sri Lanka called ‘Foster Parents Project’ (FPP)