Travel, tourism investments to rise

Indunil Hewage

Travel and Tourism investments in Sri Lanka, according to a forecast is to increase by 5.5 % per annum over the next ten years to Rs 127.2 billion in 2022, the World Travel and Tourism Council sources said.

Travel and Tourism investments in 2011 had been Rs 68.6 billion or 4.1 % of the total investments and it has been predicted that this too should rise by 8.5 % in 2012. The total contribution by Travel and Tourism to the GDP was 8.4% of the GDP or Rs 541.3 billion in 2011 and is is to rise by 6.2 % in 2012 , a rise of 5.9 % per annum to Rs 1,019.8 billion in 2022.

In 2011, the total contribution from Travel and Tourist industry to employment, including jobs indirectly supported by the industry has been 7.5 % or 590,000 jobs. This was expected to increase by 0.7 % in 2012 to 594,000 jobs, rise of 1.7 % per annum to 700,000 jobs in 2022.

However, Sri Lanka's competitors and benchmarks have been ahead of Sri Lanka in terms of tourism development.

Sri Lanka has an opportunity to gain a strong market share by exploiting opportunities such as increased visa free travel, protection of natural and cultural resources and attractions, improvement in health and safety and security environments, expansion of the domestic air transport infrastructure, improvement of road network in the Northern and Eastern areas, installation of more ATMs and mobile phone network, improvement of the tertiary education in tourism ad hospitality sector, according to another research.