Surge in tourist arrivals

Anjana Gamage

COLOMBO: Tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka neared the 160,000 mark during the first quarter of this year.

According to Director General Sri Lanka Tourist Board S. Kalaiselvam, there were 159,664 tourist arrivals during January to March 2006 this year, up from 125,250 during the same period of 2005. This is an increase of 27.5 per cent.

"There was new hope for the country's tourism industry in the aftermath of the tsunami with arrivals surpassing the half a million mark last year," the Director General said.

However, it is too early to comment on the present situation with several incidents taking place in the North and East and how it is going to affect the tourism sector, he said.

He also emphasised that no adverse travel advisory has been issued against Sri Lanka by the U.K, one of the major markets of Sri Lanka. This has been confirmed by the British High Commission in Colombo.

According to the Director General of the SLTB, during the month of March 2006 alone there were 54,746 tourist arrivals- an increase of 8.6 percent over last year. Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Tourist Board has extended its services to all regions in the country through its Mobile Service.

The main objective of the mobile service is to facilitate services to all hotels, guest-houses, heritage homes and restaurants throughout the country by expediting of registration, licensing of new establishments, renewing of licenses, inspection of new properties and providing valuable guidance and advice to potential investors.

The latest tourism mobile service was held in Kataragama in the first week of April and a vast area was covered during the two day mobile service that covered Hambantota, Ambalantota, Tissamaharama, Kataragama, Yala, Wellawaya, Buttala and Monaragala.According to these sources, a total of 50 tourist establishments have benefited from the SLTB's mobile service including four new tourism establishments.

During the mobile service 34 tourist establishments were inspected and 20 more sought assistance from the Tourist Board staff.