Lanka ready for tourist influx - Nilmin

Sanjeevi JAYASURIYA

Sri Lanka has been able to manage the growth in the tourism sector with the existing facilities and the current and developing infrastructure facilities will be sufficient for the influx of tourists in the next two years.

We were able to accommodate the increased numbers since 2009. The ongoing small and medium scale developments and the large scale projects will pave the way to facilitate the arrivals in the next two years. The development in the east and in the west coast hotels will play a major role in attracting tourists, the Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operator (SLAITO) President, Nilmin Nanayakkara told Daily News Business.

Nilmin Nanayakkara

It is important to plan for the 2.5 million tourist targeted by 2016. Therefore in the next two years we can move forward with the final phase of the targeted arrivals. However to meet this, some large scale investment with internationally known brands must come in. Emphasizing on the importance of comprehensive promotional programmes, Nanayakkara said that the industry members have different expectation levels from what the authorities can offer. The authorities have in no uncertain terms pledged their support within certain parameters and with a carefully evaluated promotional budget. " Hence we need to be more innovative to get the maximum impact on promotions from a limited budget that can be afforded.

"The industry together with the authorities is working towards meeting the objectives. We have been categorically informed not to expect high promotional budgets that are similar to some of our strong competitors where huge promotional investments coming from the government.Whilst the industry members understand the fact of the constraints in budgets due to a long drawn investment that had to be made to win peace, we definitely would like to express the importance of effective consumer promotions and creating high global awareness levels is the key to the anticipated growth by 2016."

Speaking on the available human resources, Nanayakkara said all Sri Lankan tour operators, hoteliers and all others related to the Industry are full time engaged in training by way of employing more than the required numbers at all levels as many of those employed are found to be totally unexposed to the industry.

In order to curtail this high expenditure in training as an industry, there is a requirement to strengthen the Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management (SLITHM) and get them to be more activated in training not only the hotel staff and tour leaders but also to initially introduce an effective diploma for first entry level employees with A/L qualifications joining Destination Management Companies and thereafter to raise it up to a level of a degree. This indeed is a major gap.

Nanayakkara reiterated that the challenges are not for the current year or the next year but beyond. Nanayakkara is also of the view that everybody is talking of increasing infrastructure but no one seems to be giving a thought to the large number of idle rooms and performance in the low season.In May/June the average occupancy came down to as low as 25-30%. Between September and November also there is about 35% under performance.

In shorter terms in order to go beyond the anticipated growth investing in promotions focusing on lean periods will bring immediate results with no major capital investment, but this must be done as a team by all stake holders of the industry agreeing to work on one platform, Nanayakkara said.