Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is looking towards a slight 10% increase for the upcoming winter season.
With tourist arrival figures indicating an increase there is a likelihood that winter will improve by 10% compared to the same period last year, City Hotels President Shanthi Kumar told the Business Times on Tuesday.
He noted that with the current industry figures indicating stability within the sector are likely to hold. An upward trend is observed with the government also indicating a possible increase in arrivals this year likely to top 800,000. The government previously set a target of achieving 750,000 but changed the forecast with the August arrivals indicating a surge to 537, 787 from January this year. Currently the city hotels are having about 70% occupancy while the resort hotels are also witnessing a similar rate, Mr. Kumar noted.
August indicated an increase of 29.6% over the previous year with UK and India topping the list in the highest arrival figures. While India recorded a figure of 12, 857 in August, which was an increase of 38.9%, UK had grown by only 0.6% to 12, 486. On the other hand, France and Germany were up by 42.4% and 23.3% respectively indicating a notable surge in arrivals from these markets.
This year’s figures to date indicate that July recorded the highest arrivals at 83,786 while March was at 75,130, January at 74,197 and August at 72, 463. |
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