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.