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| Saturday, 6 December 2003 |
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by Tharika Goonathilake One of South Asia's major travel publication editor's says that the recent spate of media reports on political uncertainty would not affect tourist arrivals from India, Sri Lanka's largest tourist generating market. "We have learnt the hard way that media exaggerates the ground reality and that, by and large, tourism remains above such reporting. Sri Lanka's tourism numbers have swelled in the last two years, ever since that sensational one for one offer of SriLankan to make India the number one generator for Sri Lanka," says Navin Berry, editor of Travel Trends Today and Go Now, India's best known travel magazines. He also believes the time is ripe to improve the product image in India as the SriLankan tourism product was superior to the price at which it is actually marketed to Indian travellers. "Sri Lanka is a good value for money destination, given the diversity of the tourism product. Sri Lanka should aim for the profiles it deserves. There is room to up the prices," Berry told Daily News in an exclusive interview. "The tourism product of Sri Lanka is maturing very visibly with a `general feel good factor' prevalent in the spate of hotel upgrades and increased investment cash flows," he observes. Continuous peace has provided the right platform to promote the destination, after many years of low occupancy and low recoveries. "Happier times are very much here and just about every hotel that you go to is in some stage of upgrade or refurbishment to enhance their product's lure." Berry says the national carrier's decision to expand its fleet with new aircraft and increase routes would further bolster efforts to bring in more tourist traffic since more capacity meant more visitors. Commenting on the probability of Sri Lanka tourism trying to achieve a target of 100,000 Indian arrivals this year, he says the figure was 'peanuts.' The domestic tourism market alone in India is in the region of 250 million. "If Sri Lanka can position itself within the Indian domestic tourism market and strategically promote the country's tourism product, Sri Lanka stands to achieve a bigger arrival figure than targeted," Berry says whilst emphasising the need for a much improved marketing strategy in the projection of Sri Lanka as a `hip and happening place' "to tap the huge potential of the Indian market." Nearly 70,000 Indian tourists visited Sri Lanka last year, lured by shopping and dining attractions. Up to October this year, 72,858 Indian tourists have experienced Sri Lanka. "There is a need to be more circumspect. How you deploy existing resources and get optimum utilization in every rupee you spend through more effective promotional literature and ad campaigns should be issues of concern," he notes. Commenting on airline constraints and inadequate seat capacity to service the demand, he says "the Indian Aviation policy is evolving and coming out from a closed market to a more liberal market under the recent open skies policy. SriLankan Airlines has increased its capacity three times in the last five years. Initially they had only two flights from Delhi, now they have more." SriLankan Airlines with its seven destinations in India also holds the distinction of being the only airline to fly to more Indian cities than any other international airline. "SriLankan Airlines has come a long way in the course of the last few years thanks to position of the airline and the tenacity of the industry's support.". Berry, a highly respected travel authority in the region has pioneered the promotion of Sri Lanka in the Indian market since 1996, and holds to his credit of organising, perhaps the first high ranked 40 member travel and tourism industry delegation from India, in recent history in collaboration with SriLankan Airlines. CSP Publications, hosted their much patronised annual Travel Mart South Asian Travel and Tourism Exchange (SATTE) in Sri Lanka, with a charter flight from Delhi especially designated to bring in the tour operators. Over 300 top notch Indian travel agents and 220 international tour operators were flown to the country for the event. Through the years, the company has extended its support to the Sri Lanka's tourism sector with destination promotional coverage in their monthly publications and pro- industry supportive travel events. |
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