Sri Lanka: Sleeping beauty in tourism
Sri Lanka tourism authorities need to market the destination prior to talking about numbers that only look good as statistics. The 13,547 recorded visitor arrivals last month were mostly Sri Lankan passport holders or Indians on quarantine that cannot be accounted as generating tourism revenue into the country.
Sri Lanka’s main competitors are gradually waking up to welcoming travellers worldwide since they have a larger income and cannot keep it closed forever.
Industry sources pointed out that “the authorities should not mislead the rulers by impressing them with the numbers”.
It was recorded that 8,258 visitors were from India recording a 63 per cent share of the total arrivals that month. However, it was noted that a majority of the Indian visitors were those staying in hotels quarantining prior to heading to another country for work.
Travellers who were compelled to visit the country were the ones who were non-resident Sri Lankans that increased the count with arrivals from the UK numbering 309 and 265 from Canada not in reality tourists.
It was noted that only about 4000 genuine tourists would have arrived in the country last month and in this respect, authorities need not get carried away.
Sri Lanka also played host to travellers from Russia, France and China among others in September.
But industry officials were concerned that authorities were not quick to react to the current situation by launching a promotional campaign that would have ideally generated the much needed numbers back to the country amidst this pandemic.
It is learnt that the Sri Lana Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) is currently under pressure to carry out a promotional campaign to generate the needed focus to ensure the world knows Sri Lanka is open.
With the double vaccination and entry into the country permitted it will be advantageous for the country and would increase the arrivals, officials, who declined to be quoted, said. On the other hand, destinations like India’s Goa have already lined up their promotional campaigns to issue about 500,000 visas free of charge ahead of their scheduled opening in November.
And while Thailand and Vietnam have not yet opened up, once they do, the scenario will change completely with most travellers eyeing these destinations.
Sri Lanka Tour Operators Association Immediate Past President Mahen Kariyawasam told the Business Times that in order to increase the numbers going forward a promotional campaign needed to be carried out.
In this respect, he forecasts that with a proper promotional campaign under the current conditions Sri Lanka is capable of attracting approximately 420, 000 tourists for the winter season.
He also forecasts that if permission is granted for unvaccinated tourists to arrive with a PCR test 72 hours before boarding and one PCR test on arrival to enter society then “we can get more tourists.”
The reason for this is that in countries like Russia, CIS and Eastern Europe, the majority of the citizens are still not vaccinated. However, they are risk-averse travellers, he pointed out. Mr. Kariyawasam also noted that about 20 companies will be attending the World Travel Mart (WTM) in the UK next month.