Tourist arrivals increase by 8% upto September
 

by A. G. Piyadasa

Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka increased by 8 per cent after the end of the third quarter (September 2005), a Sri Lanka Tourist Board (SLTB) official said.

The total tourist arrivals up to September 2005 were 405,585, which is an increase of 8 per cent. There were 375,630 arrivals up to 2004 September.

This is an increase of nearly 30,000 tourists.

The best market for Sri Lanka was from South Asia, which accounted for 114,039 arrivals. This is a healthy increase of 31.4 per cent. Once again Indian tourists accounted for 82,434 visitors (September 2004 was 67,834) while Maldivian tourist arrivals also increased from 9,817 to 19,245, which is a 96 per cent increase.

The North American arrivals too increased from 19,026 in 2004 September 2004 to 37,026 last month, which is an 86.7 per cent increase while East Asian arrivals too increased by 25.8 per cent.

However, it was disappointing to note the decrease of Western European tourists by 15 per cent from Australia, Belgium, Finland, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and Germany. In contrast Denmark, France, Norway arrivals have increased.

Both United Kingdom and Germany had been one of the highest revenue generating markets and a decline in this area would have a negative impact.

"The SLTB would be having an aggressive marketing campaign in the forth coming World Tourism Market (WTM), the second largest hospitality industry marketing event held in London next month. "This would revive these two markets once again," he said.

In 2004 total tourist arrivals passed the 500,000 mark and this year is expected to increase even further.

Meanwhile, the much-awaited Tourism Law authorising the formation of the Tourism Authority was tabled by the Minister of Tourism and Foreign Affairs Anura Bandaranaike and passed by Parliament on Tuesday. This would give more private sector involvement in the industry and on policy matters.

The new law would also create a Tourism Development Fund.

One third of all embarkation levy or Airport tax would be remitted to this fund, while there would also be a levy on the turnover of every institution licensed under the Tourism Development Act. The Bill also aims at restructuring the Sri Lanka Hotel School.

The Minister also assured that the introduction of the new law would not in any way retrench the existing staff in the industry.