Sri Lanka to identify tourism development zones to boost arrivals

Colombo, Feb 21 (newsin.asia) – The Sri Lankan government will identify tourism development zones throughout the island which will concentrate on tourism related activities, a statement from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) said here Thursday.

The SLTDA embarked on a mutual partnership with the the Urban Development Authority (UDA) to identify the zones which will be set up to avoid ad-hoc tourism development and to avoid undesirable activities.

The zones are likely to be set up in places such as the central highlands of Ella and Nuwara Eliya and Arugam Bay, Kalpitiya, Beruwala, Hikkaduwa and Pinnawala. These areas are popular tourist areas.

“Sri Lanka has been identified as one of the fast-emerging tourist destinations in the South Asian Region. The island’s biodiversity, long lasted culture, historic monuments, exotic beaches, and evergreen environment can be identified as the key attractions for international tourists,” the SLTDA said in the statement.

“However, with the increased tourist arrivals various tourism related or associated activities are mushrooming in around popular tourist destinations. Most of these activities are developed in an irresponsible manner in the absence of proper development guidelines in existing and emerging tourism hubs,” the SLTDA added.

Such developments put invaluable cultural and natural assets at severe risk of degradation. At the same time, there are other locations, of which the potentials have yet to be properly explored for the development of tourism-related activities, the SLTDA further said.

Since the end of the island’s 30 year civil conflict between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels, which ended in May 2009, Sri Lanka has emerged as one of the leading travel destinations in the world.

Last year, Sri Lanka received 2.3 million tourists while this year it is aiming to welcome 3 million tourists.

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Sri Lanka the cynosure at Thai Travel Fair

The 2019 edition of the Thai International Travel Fair was held in Bangkok, Thailand last week. The inauguration was held at the Bangkok Convention Center at Central World Bangkok followed by a gala dinner at Centara Grand. The event was attended by over 500 tourism stakeholders from around the world including Sri Lanka.

The Chief Guest at the inauguration was the Tourism Minister of Thailand while the Guest of Honour was the Tourism Minister of Sri Lanka, John Amaratunga who received an enthusiastic welcome from the capacity crowd that was present.

Later on Minister Amaratunga declared opened the Sri Lanka Booth, which was the cynosure at the travel fair. Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau made use of the opportunity to launch a promotional microsite highlighting the Buddhist trail in Sri Lanka. The microsite consists of the main Buddhist tourism attractions in the country, meditation centres and facilities available to learn Buddhism in Sri Lanka. 

The microsite was launched by Minister Amaratunga along with Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Thailand, Kshenuka Seneviratne, President of the Thai Travel Agents Association, Thanaphon Cheewarattanaporn and Chairman, Tourism Advisory Committee, Harry Jayawardena.

Meanwhile Minister Amaratunga and the Sri Lankan delegation met President of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, Vichat Prakobgosol on the sidelines of the Travel Fair.

The two parties discussed ways and means of increasing the number of arrivals to Sri Lanka from Thailand. Thai travel agents emphasised that relaxation of visa requirements will help increase arrivals. The Thai travel agents pointed out that outbound traffic from Thailand to Japan increased by over one million when Japan granted visa on arrival to Thai nationals.

Launch of Buddhist Trail micro website

Minister John Amaratunga speaking at the launch of Buddhist trail

Launch of the Sri Lanka booth

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Sri Lankan tourism; all that glitters is not gold

Tourism in Sri Lanka was said to have reached an all-time high last year with a staggering 2.2 million tourists visiting the country. While news articles widely publicised this never before seen rate, little did anyone pay attention to return in investment and surge in local sales brought by these tourists. 

Most of the tourists visiting the country spend less than $ 500 a week – bringing very little income and indirect employment to our locals, which in turn does not contribute to our economy drastically. So what seems to be the issue here despite having a never before seen rate of tourists pour into Sri Lanka to enjoy our sandy beaches? Let’s dig a bit deeper into the issue. 

Digging deeper into the root cause

Whilst it’s important that Sri Lanka has a steady inflow of tourists, our legislative and other bodies do not pay attention to the type of tourists that visit the country. There has been a growing increase in budget hotels and other budget accommodations both in and out of Colombo, and this number only seems to be in the rising. Although the industry must cater to all levels of tourists, our tourism sector must pay special attention to bring down tourists with higher spending power as this is where the real sales and surge in our economy lies. 

In the past few years there has been a surge in many accommodations coming up in the North, Central Highlands, South and the Cultural Triangle of Sri Lanka. Almost 80% of these hotels have room rates below $ 90 for double half-board basis. Additionally, more and more hotels are coming up in these regions simply because owners find this lucrative market attractive and get into business either because they were advised by a friend or saw someone do well in the same trade. 

Diving headfirst into ventures without a proper plan

This isn’t healthy for hotels, banks and the Sri Lankan economy as there needs to be a substantial financial and business knowledge and planning put into a venture. The business will find it very hard in the long run to pay back their bank loans as it will take them between 10-12 years to breakeven whereas a hotel with a good business and financial model will breakeven between 5-7 years; simply because there was no solid financial plan at the inception therefore having a painful effect on the growth of the business. 

Tourists visiting Sri Lanka with lesser spending power, are not contributing to the growth of our economy. With a tourist spending less than $ 500 a week by cutting down on food, travel and any other possible expense whilst opting to stay at budget hotels, their actions are not helping indirect employment opportunities to grow. With foreigners choosing to either back-pack or choose low cost travel options like travelling by bus in town or train for long distances, they are not providing our local tuk tuk drivers and cab services indirect employment. 

Time for hotels to step up and improve their game

In addition to the majority of tourists Sri Lanka attracts, hotels too must take a step up and improve their services. Hotels can no longer rely on their restaurants and buffets to help make profits, as this accounts only up to 40% of the total sale. Hotels must focus on the remaining 60% that is the real value addition; accommodation services. However our fiscal standing doesn’t make higher priced hotel a beguiling destination for the cadre of tourists we attract. With 30% of a tax charged (with a breakdown of 10% Service Charge, 15% Value Added Tax &2% Nation Building Tax) in addition to the normal rates, tourists and locals alike are disheartened to yield a higher spending power. 

Corrective measures 

In order for Sri Lanka to attract the right kind of tourists which will in turn positively affect our economy and help our nation grow and provide our locals with direct and indirect employment, Sri Lanka must look into developing infrastructure and providing higher valued goods to attract the right level of clientele. Await to find out how Sri Lanka can facilitate an economic surge during our next publication. 

(The writer is an accountant by profession turned Head of Operations. He possesses over 29 years of expertise in the hospitality industry including 20 years of strong financial administration at five-star hotels. His expertise is spread throughout his various stints in various regions around the world including USA, The Caribbean, Middle East and Singapore as well as holding the position of an operation and commercial oriented Director of Finance, with a wealth of business experience. He is a highly result oriented professional, who believes in cohesive work environments and team work. He is now retired and consults professionally to a leading international consulting firm, whilst residing in his home in Colombo.)

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Tourism industry grows by 2.2% in January

COLOMBO (News 1st) – Data released by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka shows that tourism earnings have increased by 2.2% in January 2019.

The data reveals the country earned nearly USD 458.4mn in January this year, compared to USD 448.5mn during January last year(2018).

Sri Lanka welcomed nearly 244,239 tourists in January 2019, indicating an increase of 2.2% from last year’s 238,924.

In 2019, the Sri Lankan tourism industry expects to attract more than 3 mn foreign tourists as Sri Lanka is ranked number 1 destination to visit in 2019 by Lonely Planet.

To achieve above-mentioned target Sri Lanka needs a growth rate of 28.5% on average. However, the current growth rate is at 2.2%.

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Sri Lanka's Tourism sector achieves US$ 4.4 billion revenue target

Jan 19, Colombo: Sri Lanka has earned over US$ 4.4 billion from tourism this year with revenue steadily increased by 11.6 percent compared to 2017, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) said.

According to the SLTDA, the data suggests that an average duration of stay per person is 11 days in Sri Lanka while average expenditure is approximately 2000 U.S dollars.

The Industry expectations for 2019 are 3 million tourist arrivals and revenue of 5 billion U.S dollars with lonely planet naming Sri Lanka as the Number one destination to travel in 2019.

India, China, and Britain have managed to remain as the leading markets throughout the year in 2018 as well.

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Kishu Gomes appointed Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority

Kishu Gomes will be officially appointed as the Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority and Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau today, Tourism Development Ministry said.

Accordingly, Minister John Amaratunga is to present the letter of appointment to him this afternoon.

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sl Tourism to streamline promotion activities

Sri Lanka Tourism has kick started their promotional campaign for 2019 and around 15% of the budget has already been exhausted so far, said Director, Marketing at Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, Madubhani Perera. The total budget for 2019 is around Rs. 6 billion.

She said that most of the promotion budget was invested to participate in international fairs in 2019. Perera said that last year the sum allocated for tourism Promotion was around Rs. 5 billion but only around 75% of it was used.

Meanwhile Minister of Tourism Development, Wildlife and Christian Affairs, John Amaratunga said that a proposal has been made to the cabinet to offer Visa on Arrival to tourists from Thailand.

“I am returning from an event in Thailand and their tourists are keen to visit Sri Lanka. Thai nationals are offered free visa on arrival to travel within the ASIAN region. I proposed to the cabinet to offer similar facility for them when visiting Sri Lanka.”

The Minister said that though they were targeting 3 million arrivals for 2019, if there were no political issues in Sri Lanka, this target can reach up to 3.1 million. He said that already there is a 2.2% arrival growth in January as against the previous year. 

Speaking at an event jointly organized by Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators and Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) the Minister said that this year Sri Lanka will play host to many MICE events and the biggest would be the United Nations event in March where over 3,000 delegates would participate.

He however said that successive governments have not taken serious measures to increase capacity at the Colombo airport and this has put a check on many new budget airlines that want to fly to Sri Lanka.

“There is a huge congestion at the immigration counters and steps should be taken to offer one separate lane for Sri Lankans which would speed up matters at Customs,” he said.

The Minister also said that two former Vice Presidents of Sri Lankan Tourism Promotions Bauru, Nilmin Nanayakkara and Mervyn Fernandopulle were exonerated of all charges and this proves that the judiciary is impartial.

“Both of them did not make any decisions or even take any favors while serving in the SLTBP. They merely placed their signatures on Board decisions.”

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