Tourism industry confident of targets

Set to become a three billion dollar industry:

Charumini de Silva

The Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka, the apex body of the Sri Lankan hotel Industry has extended its heartiest and warmest congratulations to President Mahinda Rajapaksa on the occasion of the swearing-in for a second term of Presidency.

The country is in a strategic position to capitalize on peace dividends and could experience a golden era with the expected boom in tourism, Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) President Anura Lokuhetti said.

Sri Lanka's tourism industry is moving in the right direction sustaining the growth momentum. The industry which did not have long spells of growth due to terrorism is recording an increased number of tourist arrivals at present.

This signifies the importance of stabilize country and conducive environment, Lokuhetti who is a veteran in the hotel industry for the last three decades said.

The tourism industry was considered as one of the most lucrative businesses prior to 1983 and became an ailing industry due to terrorist activities, which shocked the whole nation and created a major impact to the development of tourism in Sri Lanka. However, irrespective of this adverse situation the industry captains, without getting discouraged, continued to invest in tourism industry. "We are grateful to President Mahinda Rajapaksa for achieving peace and taking the country forward with the development drive. The industrialists hope that the tourism industry will be the major foreign exchange earner in the country. We are extremely grateful for those unsung heroes. The resilient attitude of those who were involved in the industry helped to sustain this industry for us to be happy today and to dream about a great future in tourism of Sri Lanka," he said.

The industry is confident that the target of 2.5 million tourist arrivals could be achieved by 2016 and tourism industry will become a three billion dollar industry. The industry expects to generate 200,000 direct employments while creating 600,000 indirect employments. Sri Lanka is blessed with all the necessary ingredients to attract tourists and the peaceful environment is a plus point. We in the tourism industry are glad that the Government has identified tourism as a thrust industry and this will favourably impact the growth. Compared to the tourist arrivals of last year, this years tourist arrivals has already shown a growth of more than 40 percent and is expected to record over 50 percent growth by end of this year, he said.

Looking at the responses received from participants at the recently concluded World Travel Market (WTM) it is encouraging and we are confident that the country's tourism industry will continue its growth in a significant manner. We could expect more than 700,000 tourists in the next calendar year.

The expected influx could be accommodated with the current room capacity. However, we need to increase room capacity targeting the 2.5 million tourist arrivals by the year 2016. The country needs 15,000 additional room capacities to cater to the increasing number of visitors. It is important to refurbish the existing hotels and modernize them to be competitive with the regional markets such as Thailand and Malaysia.

Lokuhetti said people who are involved in the tourism industry are waiting to have a good year to make some profit so that they can re-invest the money by refurbishing the hotels to be competitive in the industry. More investors are needed to invest in this sector to meet up with the room demand in keeping with the required number of rooms.

"I am confident that all the industry leaders are very enthusiastic and are very capable of building the required number of rooms with the necessary support and guidance from the current Government. We are very happy after long years we have got a good team including a very efficient Minister supported by an efficient group of people to achieve the President's target of receiving 2.5 million tourists by 2016," he said.

To fast track the development of tourism industry, the easier approach would be to attract international brands to come and invest in Sri Lanka in strategic locations. We are very pleased to note that Shangri La Group had already agreed to set up an up-market hotel in Colombo. I am certain with such brands coming to Sri Lanka will help to improve the image of the country and I strongly suggest when developing new hotels, it is crucial that new tourism zones should be declared.

In view of the strategic importance of the locations, it is important to decide on the quality of the hotels to be built on such locations.

When building hotels, I recommend that only five star hotels, four star hotels and three star hotels should be built within those identified new tourism zones to maintain the quality and standards. All other developments in such areas must be done in relation to the tourism. Any haphazard developments could have long lasting adverse effects, which could be detrimental to the growth of tourism in Sri Lanka.

With the increased interest in the tourism industry, one of the major problems that would be faced is to find the required trained employees for the industry.

Considering the expected arrivals by 2016, we can project a requirement of a minimum of additional 200,000 trained employees. This will become a major task unless we take adequate measures without any further delays.

However, when we look back on the achievements of the Government in eradicating terrorism, achieving the President's vision of receiving 2.5 million tourist arrivals by 2016 will not be a difficult task," Lokuhetti said.