Tourism on a roll
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Aldoris, the choon-paan karaya, came down the lane in his gaily decorated tuk-tuk, with the popular ages-old baila song ‘Biwwa neda Wadakaha Sudiya’ playing on his speaker. The commotion was enough to wake up the neighbourhood on this Thursday morning, and that was I reckon, Aldoris’ hidden agenda so that he could have a field day of sales.Knowing his regular arrival times, the trio was at the gate to “greet him”. As they piled up the ‘maalu paans’ on a plate, the conversation went as follows:
“Mae light nethi karadarey magey bisness ekata loku paaduwak. Apita paan saha anith kaema hadanna beri wuna (The recent power problem crippled my business as we had no electricity for many hours and we couldn’t prepare bread and other food),” grumbled Aldoris.
“Harima hasyajanakai kiyanna wandurekta puluwan wuna kiyala mulu lankawema viduli balaya bada karanna. Mona deyakda (It’s funny to say that a monkey was able to disrupt power in the whole island. What an excuse),” said Kussi Amma Sera. “Eth eka thama aththatama wuney. Ekata baladarinta dos kiyanna puluwanda? (Yes but that was what actually happened. Can you blame officials for this?)” responded Serapina.
“Aanduwata hari krama vedayak thiyenna oney, mae wagey deval walata muna denna (The government needs to have a proper system in place to be ready for similar disruptions),” noted Mabel Rasthiyadu.
As I listened to their conversation from the kitchen window, the home phone rang. It was Ruwanputha, the friendly, young economist, on the line.
“I wanted to pick your brains about a positive development in Sri Lanka – the progress of tourism in the country’s economy,” he said.
“Well tourism is on a roll and it has nothing to do with the advent of a new government. This positive trend has been picking up since last year,” I said.
“What do you reckon has been the reason for the surge in tourist arrivals in the past few months?” he asked. “Sri Lanka is getting a lot of positive play in international media and the global tourism space. There has been wide publicity overseas and despite the absence of a country promotion campaign, the destination is getting a lot of traction,” I said.
Indeed, the product is gaining a lot of attention overseas with Sri Lanka being recognised as having the “best train ride through the countryside”, “the best southern beach destination” and “the most popular beach destination in Asia” among some of the accolades secured in the overseas media and international marketing space.
This year’s tourist arrivals target is very promising and likely to touch or even be ahead of 2.3 million arrivals in 2018, the best year so far for tourism. The arrivals in 2024 were 2.05 million, much higher than the 2023 arrivals of 1.48 million. So far, if one is to consider January 2025 arrival figures, the results are positive. January 2025 arrivals reached 252,761, an increase from 238,924 in January 2018 (the best year for tourism).
Foreign exchange earnings are also rolling in. The industry raked in US$3.1 billion in 2024, an over 50 per cent increase from $2 billion in 2023 and is set to reach over $4 billion in 2025, a valuable addition to once-scarce foreign exchange earnings. Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves are currently over $6 billion which include a currency swap with China which cannot be used.
Travellers from India, Russia, UK, Germany, China, Australia, France, US, Netherlands and the Maldives, made up the top 10 tourism source markets for Sri Lanka.
Looking ahead, what are the challenges for tourism? The country garnered some negative publicity when two female tourists, British and German, died at a local tourist hostel ostensibly from pesticide poisoning as the room adjoining the one occupied by them had been fumigated to kill bed bugs.
This raises the question on the need for tourism authorities to ensure tourism facilities (hotels, resorts, hostels and homestays) are clean, safe and secure for travellers. Similar to the grading of tourist hotels and resorts under a 1-2 star to 5-star scheme, the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority should also ensure a clean (including food safety) environment apart from other facilities and amenities that are required to be graded.
With the growing demand for travel on the picturesque Kandy to Badulla train ride which includes crossing the iconic 9-arch bridge at Ella, facilities like proper rest rooms at railway stations should be created and or upgraded if such facilities exist. A positive development has been the refurbishing of the ladies’ rest room at the Colombo Fort Railway Station which can be used for a nominal fee. The rest room is spacious and has decent toilets and has got good reviews from tourists who have to spend hours waiting for their train after having travelled a long distance from, for example, a southern beach resort.
Among the to-do things by the authorities to develop and expand tourism further are (this is my bucket list):
n Sri Lanka needs to be prepared to cater to the goal of 5 million tourists in the coming year and for this, high end accommodation facilities need to be created in addition to middle and low-level hotels and resorts that now cater to the mass market and backpackers (a growing trend in the market). · Sri Lanka needs, eventually, at least a million tourists who are willing to spend $500 and over per room when tourist numbers rise.
n While the current surge in arrivals is, interestingly, without any proper tourism marketing campaign and mainly owing to word-of-mouth publicity of the destination and efforts by individual Sri Lankan companies promoting tourism, the numbers would rise sharply under a new coordinated marketing campaign.
n In addition to destination (country) marketing, the authorities also need to resort to city (Colombo) branding similar to how hot spots like Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur or Bali are branded where both the country and the city are branded separately. While tourists on round-trips include only one night in Colombo due to the absence of any entertainment options in the capital, the city is waking up to exciting new possibilities after the emergence of new units like Cinnamon Life (which should attract a large number of Indian travellers for gaming options), the ITC and the Colombo Port City. These would ensure Colombo will be a city to visit with a variety of things to do like shopping and popular street eateries.
I am at the end of my column and I shout out to in-the-kitchen Kussi Amma Sera to kindly bring my second mug of tea. As I wait, I ponder on the enormous potential of tourism to help the economy in terms of jobs, opportunities and foreign exchange earnings. On the other hand, Sri Lanka also needs to be conscious of ‘over-visitation’, an issue faced by many popular tourist destinations where locals are overwhelmed by surging tourist numbers.
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