Sri Lanka overwhelmed by Chinese tourists
View(s):Careful! You just might bump into a Chinese on the street don’t be surprised – they are taking Sri Lanka by storm from its workers in a state-run projects and now its travellers spilling over to this far-flung island to taste the tropics.
China is set to become the next biggest source market for Sri Lanka tourism in the future as it heads towards overtaking India as evidenced from February arrivals this year.
Chinese are at present the “biggest travelling nation,” and they have surpassed most of the other countries internationally so countries like Sri Lanka will get their fair share of outbound Chinese, veteran hotelier former Aitken Spence Hotels MD and Executive Consultant for RIU Resorts in Sri Lanka and Maldives Malin Hapugoda told the Business Times.
More than 120 million Chinese went abroad in 2015, spending US$104.5 billion, according to official data from there.
Mr. Hapugoda also explained that more Chinese would visit Sri Lanka as they were attracted to China-friendly nations.
However, with the economic slowdown lately observed in China’s GDP it could have an impact on the growth trends, Mr. Hapugoda said.
The slowdown in its economic growth could result in a dip in their spending in future, whereas today the Chinese are considered the highest tourist spenders internationally. The World Tourism Organisation has predicted that Chinese tourists will make up to 250 million outbound trips including mainland residents entering Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.