Tourism is expected to top approximately US$850 million in foreign exchange in 2011, up sharply by 47% from 2010. Tourist arrivals also rose by 30 % last year to 855, 975. Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Managing Director Rumy Jauffer told the Business Times that the foreign exchange earnings for 2011 are in line with targets.
Hotels Association President Anura Lokuhetty said that compared to 2010, last year witnessed a "good improvement." Foreign exchange earnings in terms of per guest per night had gone upto US$100 compared to Malaysia that has arrivals numbering nearly 25 million, Singapore at 12 million and Thailand with 15 million tourists arrivals, he explained. This year, the industry believes there is a possibility of achieving a similar 30% growth with the need for those in the sector to be ready for approximately 250,000 additional guests, which is an achievable target, he said.
Currently the world forecast is about 3-4% year on year for the next 10 years in terms of tourist traffic moving between countries, Mr. Lokuhetty said. He pointed out that with Asia cashing in on 9-10% of the growth it is likely Sri Lanka would be able to grab 0.8% of the growth anticipated in Asia. Western European countries have indicated an increase of 24.5% from January- November while the biggest growth was shown by UK, France and Germany.
Mr. Lokuhetty remained optimistic of increased arrivals from the Western European markets for last month due to the winter season in Europe. He pointed out that while there is a need for the industry to sustain the Western European market it is important to also keep an eye on the growing markets like China.
However, while Russia and South Asia indicated an increase in arrivals, Eastern Europe indicated an increase of almost 40% and growth from the Middle East amounted to 54%. Mr. Lokuhetty pointed out that while this year there would be an addition of 800 new rooms, in 2011 there was a growth of 10% with the addition of 300-500 rooms to a total of 22, 000 rooms at the end of last year with 15,000 in the formal sector and 7000 rooms in the informal sector. |
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