Sri Lanka’s new tourism administration headed by Minister Harin Fernando has resurrected the socio- economic crisis battered hospitality industry with the untiring efforts of Tourism Development led by veteran tourism administrator Priyantha Fernando along with private stake holders, several travel trade analysts said.
The tourism authority had planned for 1.6 million foreign visitors in 2023. Priyantha Fernando said the authority is up to the challenge, but aggressive promotions must be carried out immediately.
Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority is in the process of revising up its 2023 tourist arrival target after President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s interim budget aimed at much than higher expected arrival target in 2023.
It had earlier planned to attract 3 million tourists with a revenue of US$7 billion by 2027.
Influx of Russian travelers has pushed cumulative arrivals to Sri Lanka to over 80,000 in the first 25 days, Tourism Minister Harin Fernando said this week.
“Around 20,000 tourists have arrived in the country within the first 25 days, followed by India with over 10,500 tourists, Germany with around 7,000 tourists, the UK with over 6,500 visitors and France with nearly 4,000 travellers,” he said, speaking at the launch of the ‘Sustainable Tourism Unit’ at the Sri Lanka Tourism Ministry.
He also said the daily average arrivals have crossed 3,300 compared to 2,000 levels last year showing a significant improvement.
Noting that the boost in arrivals was largely influenced by the Russian tourist, maintaining a lead ahead of India this year, the Minister hoped that the neighbouring giant will catch up and regain its top spot in the arrivals table.
“There are two major MICE events happening in the first half and we expect an influx of Indian travelers,” he added.
As per the Minister, Russia accounts for around 25% of the total arrivals, whilst India is 13%, Germany and UK 8% and France 5%.
Minister Fernando said Sri Lanka will likely meet its arrivals target of 105,000 for this month, whilst expressing confidence that the set target of 1.55 million visitors by the end of 2023 is possible with an income of $ 2.88 billion.
Originally for 2023, Sri Lanka Tourism set an ambitious target of 1.5 million arrivals and an income of $ 5 billion by attracting high-end travellers who spend over $ 400 per day from the current $ 200.
With China announcing that Sri Lanka will be included among the countries in its outbound tourism pilot program which will commence on 6 February, Minister Fernando said it will be a welcome boost to the arrivals and foreign exchange inflow into the economy.
The countries listed for travel by the Chinese Government are; Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Russia, Switzerland, Hungary, New Zealand, Fiji, Cuba and Argentina.
Despite it being a ‘crisis year’ Sri Lanka ended 2022 with 719,978 tourists, up by 207% over 2021. Though missing the original target of 750,000 arrivals, the Minister said the provisional data shows that the earnings target of $ 1.2 billion was achieved last year.
