Tourism potential to be bigger than remittances, garments exports

The tourism industry suffered a terrible blow after the spate of violence in the country but according to British High Commissioner Dominick Chilcott, there are signs that tourist arrivals may be picking up again.

Addressing the Ceylon Hotel School Graduates Association last Saturday, Chilcott said that throughout these difficult times, British visitors have been more faithful than other to Sri Lanka . "Our numbers have dipped a bit too. But maybe because of the myriad ties that link our peoples, ties of kith, kin and friendship, building on many years of shared history, perhaps British people have been less easily put off."

Chilcott said the 2007 figures so far in Sri Lanka are dismal. For the first six months, tourist arrivals were down by 24%. "As I said earlier, there are signs that things are picking up again. Let's hope so." Chilcott said the tourism industry is massive world-wide. According to the World Trade Organization in 1998, tourism accounts for one third of the value of total trade in global services. It is among the top five foreign exchange earners for 80% of the world's countries, including Sri Lanka . In about one third of developing countries, tourism is the biggest foreign exchange earner of all. "And your industry is getting bigger."

For many developing countries, Chilcott said tourism is an absolutely key component of their national economic plans. "This is because tourism is able quickly to stimulate income and employment growth and, through taxes and excise duties, to bring in foreign exchange earnings and revenue for the government." Tourism creates jobs more quickly than most other sectors and is good at creating jobs for new workers or those with minimal skills, not confined to those directly employed by the tourist industry. The multiplier effect of tourism, the indirect or induced economic effect, is greater than for most other sectors. In Sri Lanka last year, official statistics showed that employment, indirect and direct, in the tourism sector grew up by 6% to 134,000.

"So many others benefit from the spending power of foreign holiday makers. Shop owners whether they sell souvenirs or the basic necessities of life, three-wheeler drivers, restaurant owners, suppliers of goods to restaurants and hotels, people who grow the produce or make the goods or import them that the suppliers buy to sell to the hotels and restaurants, the people walking up and down the beach selling sarongs, tambili and wooden models of fishing boats, the mahouts and their elephants, all of these and so many more depend to a greater or lesser extent on vibrant and healthy tourism, even though most of them would not describe themselves as working in the tourism industry."Chilcott added that tourism diversifies economies and therefore reduces the risk associated with too much reliance on one or two big sectors. Sri Lanka 's economy does seem to rely very much at present on remittances and the garment sector. Tourism has the potential to be as big or a bigger earner than these two.