Remarkable growth in tourism

Sri Lanka Tourism is making rapid strides in garnering remarkable growth in inbound tourism and is recording tourist arrivals in double digits. The January figures for 2010 registered a 32 percent growth. Due this remarkable growth, Sri Lanka tourism has launched the biggest tourism venture in its history - “Visit Sri Lanka 2011”. The colossal project has been ushered in with rave reviews such as the New York Times and Daily Candy Washington D.C declaring Sri Lanka to be the No.1 spot for holidaymakers in 2010. The article recommends Sri Lanka as the optimal tourist destination while extensively featuring Nilaveli Beach, Matara and Galle.
“All Sri Lankans should be proud that our country has not only been featured in such a prestigious list but is also ranked on the top spot. It comes as no surprise, as we as a tourist destination have an exquisite offering. The whole world now has its eye on Sri Lanka,” commented the Minister of Tourism, Hon Achala Jagoda.

Promotional Drive

Sri Lanka Tourism is using “Visit Sri Lanka 2011” as a unique marketing and communication tool to lure in tourists through product development, promotion and communication. The strategy encompasses social network marketing as a primary medium to communicate with potential tourists and lure them to the land of opportunity. Leading TV stations including BBC, Al-Jazeera, CNN and Discovery Travel & Living have gone full throttle with televising TV commercials on Sri Lanka. As part of this global communication campaign, Visit Sri Lanka 2011 has projected an arrival figure of 703,000 tourists with the target set to bring 2.5 million tourists by 2016. Several signature events are in line in view of Visit Sri Lanka 2011; Arugambay home to the highest tides in South Asia will for the first time since the end of the conflict, witness the one week long surf festival in full force, with the participation of over 150 surfers from more than 50 countries. Sigiriya will come alive to an art and craft mela in June.

Infrastructure Implementation

With the conflict behind us, Sri Lanka is refocusing on developing infrastructure and bringing the limelight back on places like Nilaveli Beach, Passikudha, Trincomalee and Arugambay. Today the government of Sri Lanka has directed all its efforts to developing these provinces to restore them to the tourist friendly towns they once were. At least 40 000 rooms are expected to flourish with 7000 in Kalpitiya alone by the year 2016. Kalpitiya is a new tourism development area, developed under the Ministry of Tourism. Sri Lanka Tourism is expecting investments of over 3.5 billion USD, in order to build the required infrastructure to receive 2.5 million tourists by 2016. The Dutch bay Kalpitiya will soon be home to Sri Lanka’s second International hotel chain, Six Senses which is opening up a luxurious resort poignantly titled Dutch Bay Resort with 60 mangrove boutique chalets will be located within the inland water bodies with 20, two storey Signature Villas along the Lagoon.

Relaxation of Travel Advisories

For foreign tourists to truly experience the serendipity of Sri Lanka, the relaxations of travel advisories is essential. With the ending of the 30 year long conflict which resulted in relaxation of travel advisories, statistics from Sri Lanka Tourism show a remarkable hike in tourist arrivals. The British High Commission in Sri Lanka now regards it safe to travel to the East as well as Jaffna.
“We have been working very closely with all foreign missions to bring down the sensitivity levels indicated in their travel advisories. We have been very successful thus far, it’s only a matter of time before other countries relax their advisories,” said Eranga Basnayake, Chairman of the Sri Lanka Development Authority and Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau.
In addition to the relaxation of travel advisories to Sri Lanka, there has been a significant change in airlines increasing their frequency of travel in to Colombo. Qatar Air ways and Emirates fly triple daily, Singapore Airlines flies daily, and at the same time Malaysian Airlines and Air Asia increasing their flight frequency significantly.
The increase in air frequency comes in the wake of the increasing tourist arrivals figures after the relaxation of travel advisories. The overall tourist arrivals for 2009 increased by 2 percent; in an environment of the global financial crisis. The December 2009 figures alone registered a 16 percent growth when compared to 2008. The UK market recorded nearly 12 percent rise in arrivals in December 2009, when compared to the corresponding month in 2008 and an overall growth of 0.3 percent for the year 2009.

Top Ten Economies

Sri Lanka was ranked among the Top Ten Fastest Growing Economies, being eighth in the world according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) of United States. As the global economy would emerge in the recession, it is envisaged that Sri Lanka would record a 6.3 percent GDP growth rate that is second only to China, which will record an 8.6 percent in the Asian region. Currently the Sri Lankan stock market is ranked second-best in the world. With these positive signs coupled with political stability and higher capital and financial inflows will leap forward the sphere of economic prosperity.
The opening of the North and East has helped Sri Lanka become a popular year around tourist destination. The season for the South and South West is from November to April and the season for the East and North East being May to October.

Chinese New Year Challenge for Cathay Pacific’s travel agents

The Park Street Mews came alive with the celebrations of the Chinese New Year as Cathay Pacific Airways hosted the ‘CX Chinese New Year Challenge’ on the February 18 for the airlines affiliated travel agents. Three members from each travel agency were invited by Cathay Pacific to participate in a quiz competition relating to the products and services of the airline. 35 travel agents applied for the competition, of which 12 of the highest scorers were selected to participate in the finals of the quiz challenge.
The 12 finalists were then presented with a theme for which they enthusiastically set to work to develop imaginative and creative works of art depicting each team, in keeping with the celebrations of the Chinese New Year. Points were given for the teams’ decorative Chinese lanterns as well, and these pieces were displayed at the Park Street Mews where the final competition was held.
Gabo Travels (Pvt) Ltd emerged triumphant winners, while Mackinnons American Express Travels and Gabo Travels Overseas (Pvt) Ltd. became 1st and 2nd Runners up respectively. It was a pleasant surprise to see the creativity and hard work the agents dedicated towards the task of creating the unique Chinese lanterns, and the evening saw Classic Travels bag the award for the best lantern. The travel partners spoke very positively about this knowledge-based competition, which is beneficial for their staff when providing services for clients.