Financial Times

French travel agent on tsunami impact
Opportunity for Sri Lanka to re-position tourist industry
The spontaneous help and support extended by local people and tourists affected by the tsunami while holidaying in Sri Lanka has provided an unexpected boost to tourism in this country, according to a group of foreign travel agents.

Speaking at a press conference called by Sri Lanka’s United Holidays Ltd to mark the company’s 10th anniversary, they also said the country’s tourist future lies in the non-mass market like eco, culture, trekking, hiking and adventure and stressed the need to shift focus from the mass market, sun-and-sand tourism.

“60 to 70 percent of the French who go on holidays overseas prefer adventure and cultural tourism since France itself has nice beaches,” noted Gael de la Porte Du Theil, President Interface Tourism,

He said the best support one could give to tsunami-affected Sri Lanka is for tourism-originating destinations to send as many tourists as possible.
“French tourists were delighted at the way they were well treated by Sri Lankan people during the tsunami. There are many testimonials about how Sri Lankans helped. Some victims spoke tearfully on TV how Sri Lankans shared whatever food they had with tourists. It is remarkable --- the Sri Lankan spirit,” he said.

Gael says Sri Lanka relies too much on beach tourism. “There are too many islands in the world with beaches … its very competitive. We want culture. The tsunami has given a chance to Sri Lanka to re-position its tourist industry,” he added. Michael Steven from SAGE Holidays, a British tour operator that specialized in holidays and cruises for people aged over 50, said they had 1,000 confirmed bookings for the September to April 2006 winter season in Sri Lanka. “That’s a very good sign. People are coming back to Sri Lanka and staying longer – at least three weeks now,” he said adding however that it would take at least two years for the industry to recover from the tsunami. United Holidays was launched in 1995 by industry veteran Afghar Mohideen as a destination management company. Since then it is SAGE’s sole agent in Colombo and also the general sales agent for US-based United Airlines and Air Canada, among other activities.

Mohideen told reporters that the company has decided to re-brand and re-position its product adding a new logo and new companies in the process.
All its overseas partners were represented at the press conference by high profile executives from abroad. With tourism taking new dimensions as the market for other attractions grow, United Holidays has launched two companies called United Adventures and Holiday Villas aiming to tap adventure travelers and visitors seeking an experience in an exclusive villa or bungalow.
Mark Moss, Senior Sales & Product Manager at STA Travel, said Sri Lanka has become the newest country (through United Holidays) to enter the student and youth travel market which STA specializes in.

The British company has 2.5 million customers a year, about six percent of the global distribution network, and 400 branches in 17 countries.
He said in this product students travel around the world at reasonable prices and sometimes are offered part-time jobs to recover some of the costs of the holiday.

Moss said some 5,000-6,000 young people mostly from Australia have opted to work as volunteers in tsunami affected countries in a programme facilitated by STA.

United Holiday officials said the student travel market was huge with 5,000 to 7,000 Sri Lankans going out every year to universities and institutions in the US, UK, Australia and India among others.

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