Tourist arrivals continue to increase

by Shirajiv Sirimane

Lanka has recorded a 3 percent increase in tourist arrivals in the first five months of the year in comparison to the previous year despite the set back of the December 26 tsunami, said Sri Lanka Tourist Board Chairman Udaya Nanayakkara. Speaking at the inauguration of second Travel Mart, he said that this is proof that the tourists still like to travel to Sri Lanka and the programs launched by the SLTB have paid off.

Deputy Minister of Tourism Arjuna Ranatunga said that the industry recovered faster than expected. Government efforts in this regard should be applauded. He also said that the MICE (Conference tourism) is picking up and it accounted to 12 percent of the total arrivals last year. Minister of Culture and Tourism Government of Chattisgarh, Brijmohan Agrawal said that Sri Lanka in addition to its cultural and natural beauty is a fine shopping destination and they would promote it in the region.

Manager Marketing Japan Travel Association, James K. Soejima said that Japanese arrivals to Sri Lanka were on the increase. He said that the arrivals which were less than 50,000 last year would increase by the end of 2005. "There is an aggressive marketing campaign in Japan and I am confident that the Japanese arrivals will pass the 100,000 mark very soon.

"It is estimated that the Japanese outbound traffic would increase to 20 million by the end of 2007 and this is a good market for Sri Lanka to tap," he said.

A 39 member Chinese travel and tour delegation was also invited for the Travel Mart and this was the largest group to visit Lanka after the tsunami. Deputy General Manager Outbound Department, Beijing China, Chen Yulin, said that the direct flights launched by the SriLankan Airlines would increase Chinese arrivals to Sri Lanka.

He said that over 25 million Chinese travel abroad last year and this number would increase by around 8 percent by the end of the year. Lanka has only a very little market from this as many Chinese still do not know where Sri Lanka is. SLTB should have more promotions to attract Chinese tourists who are high spenders.

Meanwhile, Nanayakkara said that the Travel Mart has attracted 110 buyers and 74 exhibitors which is an increase of 20 percent than the previous year.

"Last year event had cost over Rs. 2 million. But this year the entire event was handled by the SLTM marketing officials and the cost was less than Rs. 600,000," he said.

The media sponsor for Travel Mart 2005 was the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.