Tourism sector heading for bright future:

Lanka attracts tourists despite global financial crisis

Hiran H. Senewiratne in Berlin

The global financial crisis has hit Europe and Sri Lanka is now in the process of attracting tourists in other markets especially in the Middle East, Indian and Chinese regions, said Vice President, Tourist Hotel Association of Sri Lanka Amal Goonetilleke.

She said the growth in the number of Middle East tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka is more than 24 per cent compared to last year. Tourist arrivals from India and China have also shown a steady growth compared to the past few years. Goonetilleke said Sri Lanka’s tourism sector is heading for a bright future due to the strong private and public sector partnership and they are still optimistic about European markets.

Therefore, they are closely working with leading German tour operators including the TUI Group, Reve Group and Thomas Cook to promote Sri Lankan tourism among European travellers.

She said that the proposed Kalpitiya tourism zone will be a huge potential destination to promote and attract tourists from all parts of the world and there will be some lull in the sector until the world economic crisis comes to a stable position.

However, based on the 500,000 travel interviews in 58 countries IPK International, a leading research entity on travel trends said that in Europe a wide-ranging forecast, which suggested that 2009 will see travel declines in most markets in the world, with 2010 neutral and a small growth likely in 2011 and 2012.

IPK International’s Chief Executive Officer Rolf Freitag said, “We’re in a full global economic crisis, not a small recession. Consumer greed in the last few years has turned into consumer fear.”

He said that European and North American markets will be more adversely affected compared to other regions in the world. IPK said that China, India and all of Latin America will record a GDP and travel demand growth, even in 2009. However, these growth figures will be smaller than the precedents set over the past 10 years.

Freitag pointed out that over 50 per cent of global travel demand emanates from Europe. Within Europe, in 2008, the Russians, Dutch and Poles recorded much higher than average travel rates. However, the strong devaluation of the Russian Rouble and Polish Zloty suggest that such strong performance is unlikely to be repeated in 2009. Internet bookings will also surge.

The demand for online virtual meetings will gather pace. Domestic travel will stay stable or grow, as will demand for low cost flights. Destinations adjacent to big travel markets will not fare that bad.

Long haul and MICE travel are likely to be affected due to the global crisis. IPK’s travel interviews suggest that 40 per cent of Europeans will change their travel plans due to the economic crisis. Some 66 per cent of Europeans and 60 per cent of Asians plan to change.

This change would mean that they are likely to switch to domestic travel, travel for shorter periods of time, choose cheaper destinations, or spend less while on holiday, the survey revealed.