2012 sees one million tourist arrivals, revenue hits $ 1 billion mark:

SL Tourism achieves golden double

Achieving another remarkable milestone in the country’s booming tourism industry, Sri Lanka Tourism welcomed the arrival of the one-millionth tourist in 2012 at Bandaranaike International Airport on December 30, 2012.

Lakshman Yapa Abeywardhana, Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Chairman Sri Lanka Tourism Bhashwara Gunarathna, Kamal Rathwaththa – Deputy Chairman Of Airport and Aviation(LTD), Managing Director Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Rumy Jauffer, J. Kehelpannala- President, Tourist Hotel Association of Sri Lanka, Nilmin Nanayakkara- Board Member,(SLTPB), Zerney Packeer – Vice President(SLAITO) Mervin Fernandopulle - Board Member SLTPB with a group of representatives from travel and tourism industry warmly welcomed Jiang Ying and her husband Yang Bo who arrived in Sri Lanka via flight UL 889 from Beijing at 10 pm December 30. Sri Lanka Tourism took steps to arrange a special ceremony to welcome the 1,000,000th guest. They were given special gifts for being the lucky couple from China to pass the milestone.

Jiang Ying being the happy visitor to arrive in Sri Lanka as the 1,000,000th tourist for 2012, said “I had heard a lot about Sri Lanka from my friends. I found out details about your country before deciding my holiday destination. I was simply enchanted by the photos on the internet. Sri Lanka is as beautiful and breathtaking as presented in the photos. Moreover, Sri Lankans are very hospitable and kind.”

The 950 000th tourist landed in Sri Lanka on December 18 allowing the tourist industry to rejoice over its success in achieving the set target of 950,000 arrivals for 2012. However, all the previous arrival records of the Sri Lanka tourism history were broken with the arrival of the 1,000,000th tourist in Sri Lanka. Compared to the previous year, the present number of tourist arrivals indicates a growth of 17 %. Besides, the total revenue also surpassed US $ 1 billion.

Under the guidance of Minister of Economic Development, Basil Rajapaksa, a five year strategic development plan has been launched for the tourism sector for the years 2011-2016, based on the Mahinda Chintana -Vision for the Future - Development Policy Framework.

This strategic development plan of Sri Lanka Tourism will achieve its core objectives of serving the needs of all stakeholders and ensuring the economic benefits of the industry distributed to a larger cross section of the society from fisherman, craftsman, farmer, street vendor, tour guide and tour operator, up to the Hotel industry. As per this strategy, the key objectives of developing the tourism industry are; Increase tourist arrivals from 650,000 in 2010 to 2.5 mn by 2016. Attract USD 3,000 mn as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the country within 5 years.

Increase the tourism related employment from 125,000 in 2010 to 500,000 by 2016 and expand tourism based industry and services all island.

Distribute the economic benefits of tourism to a larger cross section of the society and integrate tourism to the real economy. Increase foreign exchange earnings from US $ 500 mn in 2010 to US $ 2.75 bn by 2016. Contribute towards improving the global trade and economic linkages of Sri Lanka. Position Sri Lanka as the world’s most treasured island for tourism.”

The government, with its agenda based on benefitting its people with the thriving industry of tourism, played a major role in achieving this target by linking the tourism industry and the mindset of the public.Having identified Russia, Eastern European Countries, Japan, China, Korea and India as emerging markets, SLTPB executed a new series of promotional activities incorporating the new strategies of the government. This campaign included travel fairs, road shows, major advertising campaigns and social media promotions. The said campaign resulted in a greater contribution from the aforesaid countries. It also helped greatly in achieving the target of 1,000,000 arrivals. India, Middle East, U.K, France, Russia and Eastern European Countries were a major contribution to the total of arrivals.

Sri Lanka tourism, which has identified the growing tendency of Chinese to travel overseas, has conducted a series of promotional campaigns during the year 2012, targeting those potential visitors.

The intended promotional programme to woo Chinese tourists has the backing and strong leadership of Minister of Economic Development, Basil Rajapaksa. The key among them is the participation in four major travel fairs held in China, such as the BITE, GITF, CITM and GITF, which were conducted during 2012. Under the promotional strategy, SLTPB also invited and hosted journalists from 15 leading media institutions in China, covering both electronic and print media.

Among those media institutions which sent journalists to Sri Lanka are, the Beijing TV, which has a viewership of 500 million and ‘Beijing Times’ news paper of which the circulation number runs up to over a 100 million. Apart from those institutions, journalists from Baidu.com and Travel and Leisure Magazine of China too arrived in Sri Lanka, to help promote the Island among the Chinese community.

Representatives from 30 leading travel agencies operating in China visited Sri Lanka during the year 2012. Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau invited these agents to the Island to take part in a familiarization tour of the country. The Island saw nearly 22,176 tourists arriving from China during the first eleven months of this year, a year on year growth of 46% Sri Lanka is aiming to increase the arrival number to 60,000 tourists by 2013 and has already lined up several promotional campaigns to create awareness about its tourism attractions among the Chinese travelers. Key among the planned campaigns is the introduction of ‘Special Holiday Packages’ to the Chinese tourists, who are expected to travel during the “Lunar New Year”.

Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau is also planning to spread the message to the Chinese audience through “Bus advertising campaign” and also will hold a three day ‘Sri Lankan Night’ in China to help promote the Island’s tourism package. Along with the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, the government institutions, local travel and tourism sector stakeholders too participated in the above mentioned ‘Sri Lankan Night’.Secretary to the Ministry of Economic Development and Treasury Secretary Dr. P. B. Jayasundera’s guidance and support too has been immense during the SLTPB’s China based campaigns.

Also, today the involvement of a number of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the tourism industry has helped earn a lot of foreign exchange. Apart from the island wide development process launched by the government, upgrading of infrastructure, road development, the introduction of new segments like new botanical gardens, the expansion of Dehiwala zoo, the development of the hotels in the Eastern province and other parts of the country, the Southern Highway and city beautification programmes and Hambantota new Marine port, have contributed in developing the tourism industry in Sri Lanka. In addition, the construction of Mattala airport, Katunayaka-Colombo Highway and Colombo Outer-Circular Highway are the other programs that will be carried out in future, to develop tourism.

At present, the tourism industry has become a major component in bringing about the economic boom in post-conflict Sri Lanka. The peaceful situation of the country and its hereditary beauty intermingle to attract many visitors around the globe. With this positive situation, international investors have begun to expand the domestic market to cater to the potential growth of tourist arrivals in the years to follow. For example, the construction of major tourist hotels such as Shangri La, Centara, Marriot, OZO is underway at present.

With these developments at hand, Sri Lanka Tourism targets a number of 1.2 million arrivals for the year 2013. Thus, the Bureau has already planned to participate in 36 major travel fairs of the world. In addition, International promotional activities will also be executed largely in collaboration with social media sites and world famous airlines to make this long term goal a reality. Moreover, under the visiting journalists programme, Sri Lanka Tourism also makes yearly arrangements to invite 200 foreign journalists from leading magazines and television channels around the globe and thereby to enhance the image of Sri Lanka.

These journalists, after familiarization tours in Sri Lanka, are to write image-building articles on Sri Lanka, upon return to their native countries. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Tourism will start a promotional campaign with The British airways and will make arrangements to resume direct flights to Colombo from Gatwick,UK in March 2013.

With the visionary leadership of President Mahinda Rajapakse and the guidance of Minister Basil Rajapakse the tourism industry is poised for growth being in line with the national effort of making Sri Lanka, the emerging Wonder of Asia.