50 years in tourism: Is Sri Lanka marketed properly?
View(s):When a Singapore hospitality expert asked in 2014 for a package tour of Sri Lanka, the offering was similar to that she had experienced 10-15 years ago. “It was no different. I have been visiting Sri Lanka for many years and the package was the same as 10-15 years ago. You need to change your product, you need to provide experiences,” she told a Colombo forum last year. At a 2015 hospitality conference in Colombo covering island tourism in Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Mauritius, a UK-based hospitality branding expert presented slides from a standard Sri Lankan presentation which showed sun, sand, beaches, wild life and Sigiriya, and said: “Sri Lanka has much more than these standard offerings”. Noting that there is much more in the country than what is promoted (beaches, sands, culture which are what tour agents talk about), he added:
Sri Lanka has such a breadth of diversity but the ‘Wonder of Asia’ doesn’t talk about the incredible offerings like kids going to school, devotees in temples, churches, chatter on the streets, lifestyles, cooking a curry”. Ironically at the same meeting and after the branding expert’s presentation, local officials pitched Sri Lanka as a great place to visit showing the same old slides and worn-out pictures! As Sri Lanka marks a milestone, celebrating 50 years in tourism and the hospitality business, are there lessons to learn, correct them or is it a continuation of strategies and plans driven by political agendas rather that industry or client-driven? Will the national celebrations be yet another tamasha, grand statements and wishful thinking or come up with a solid 25-50 year plan?
Sri Lanka, just like the recent debate over a Harvard-driven investment conference where foreign economists were saying the same things that local economists have been saying for many years, also doesn’t need foreign experts to explain what is wrong in tourism. Entrepreneurs like Herbert Cooray, M.T.A. Furkhan and George Ondatjee created the platform in the early 1970s for a vibrant sector that was backed by a simple ingredient – service with a smile. From that era, missing today are the ‘Sri Lankan smile’ and positioning of the product. In a recent interview, veteran lawyer K. Kanag Isvaran, a board director at the Bentota Beach Hotel in the 1970s, said missing in today service delivery is the ubiquitous Sri Lanka smile and natural welcome.
“That old world charm that was evident those days are gone. The service is more mechanical (today) and we have to address young staff as ‘Putha’ to get their attention, even when they come into the hotel room, place flowers on the bed and rush away. Those days they would chat and talk. This is missing today with profit, not service, being the motive,” he said wistfully. To be fair by today’s entrepreneurs and managers, the industry was dealt a heavy blow when the civil conflict erupted in 1983 and scarred the industry for life. An industry that was gearing for growth and would have had Shangri-Las, Sheraton or the top-end St Regis brand in the 1980s, was brought to a grinding halt. Unsure of the future, professional managers migrated for better jobs. Tourism struggled but to the credit of those who remained,
the industry was able to sustain itself even though far below its potential. Some of the chains like Aitken Spence and John Keells expanded locally and abroad (widely in the Maldives) while Jetwing expanded locally amidst the war, all ploughing their own financial resources on promoting the country abroad amidst negative publicity (just like what the Maldives is facing today) from pro-LTTE groups. Since then new groups have emerged like LOLC, Ananthaya and Citrus Leisure. The war ended in 2009 but rather than a proper game-plan to tackle new challenges (in particular a proper marketing and promotion plan), the government relied on a ‘now-that-the-war-has-ended-tourists-will-start-flowing-back-to-the-country’ kind of strategy. Yes, visitor arrivals rose but in recent years,
the rate of growth has slowed down which means that pent-up, post-war demand is over and Sri Lanka needs to dig in far for some new solutions! The rate of increase in recent years is as follows: Year 2009 (up 2.1 per cent from minus 11.7 per cent growth in 2008), 2010 (up 46 per cent), 2011 (up 30.8), 2012 (up 17.5), 2013 (26.7), 2014 (up 19.8) and 2015 (up 17.9). Seven years after the war, Sri Lanka is still groping in the dark for a proper positioning strategy: Is Sri Lanka a top-end destination; is it a mid-market destination or a bottom-end destination? The industry is all over the place and (like the old saying) with “no fixed abode”. In pricing, Sri Lanka is competing with other Asian nations. The compulsory Colombo hotel rates are neither good nor bad, says a cross-section of the industry with no clear definition or idea.
On Thursday, reporters pitched into a visiting Malaysian tourism promotional delegation saying the visa process is restrictive to which the visiting officials promised to ease the process. Nevertheless, more than 50,000 Sri Lankans visited Malaysia last year despite these roadblocks while only 5,000 Malaysian travellers came to Sri Lanka. Is Sri Lanka too costly? Gone are the days when Sri Lanka used to attract investors using the ‘cheap labour and highly skilled workforce’ strategy. Today with high energy rates and wages (due to rising cost of living), Sri Lanka has no comparative advantage. Likewise tour operators are offering cheap packages of around Rs. 50,000 for a 3-day visit to an Asian destination inclusive of air fares, B&B, etc which is equivalent or sometimes less than what it costs to stay in a middle or up-market hotel here!
While most upmarket destinations like the Maldives and Dubai, for example, are rapidly building mid-market hotels to cater to this growing segment, Sri Lanka’s upmarket and bottom-end (homestays, guest houses and unregistered accommodation) are doing well while the mid-market (actually upper-mid range) segment is struggling without a competitive pricing policy. At a recent discussion on tourism, it was revealed that 40 per cent of visitors came through online bookings and stayed at unregistered accommodation! So, how should Sri Lanka be positioned as a destination? Cheap, value-for-money or sustainable? These are the challenges the industry is facing today and in the next few years.