MRIA paradigm shift in int'l transportation

Peter Barbut

President Mahinda Rajapksa opened Sri Lanka's second International Airport in Mattala, in the southern part of the country on March 18, in connectivity to the Hambantota seaport, which will give the island nation a paradigm shift in the international transportation infrastructure from the traditional commercial capital Colombo, which was the only serving transportation hub for the past several decades since the country existed under foreign dominance dating back in the 15th century under the foreign rule of the Portuguese, Dutch and the British.

Mattala Airport is built in close proximity to the eastern sea front on the east coast of Sri Lanka and can serve as the gateway for tourism in the south and east coast line of the country.

The writer of this article, having had his past experiences in the travel industry during the late 70's, when Sri Lankan tourism was at it's peak, likes to share some valuable input that can create commercial activity by using the Mattala International Airport to justify some long-term revenue for the sustainability of this national expenditure.

Considering the fact that the beaches of our eastern seaboard has sparkling clear sand and breath taking beaches that can fascinate any visitor to Sri Lanka, tourism and the hospitality industry has to be the driving force coupled with water sports and leisure entertainment facilities with value for money accommodation that should be easily available for the visitor. Hotels need to be priced to suit a cross-section of foreign and local visitors and also should be in the category of star class beach resorts, regular class hotels and for the budget traveller class, like what we can find in our neighbouring competitors Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia. Maldives has a different product which they offer, mostly catering to the very rich Europeans, and for adventurous activities such as special water sports like scuba diving, ocean photography including pleasure yachting and this tourist segment pays high rates for their privacy and pleasure. Sri Lanka, hence, cannot even consider the Maldives market as a competitor at all.

Promoting our Eastern beach destinations

The eastern beach line of Sri Lanka can only offer good beaches and good sunny weather during the season. This cannot be the only attraction for a tourist who might be looking for options in his/her holidays. We need to also be able to create other forms of holiday entertainment; for instance, family oriented fun parks like the Genting Highlands in Malaysia, with in house accommodation and various types of restaurants and water sporting events, amusement parks where the entire family can spend valuable time.

Create an attraction to the traveller

Major tourist markets which need to be targeted are countries like China, India, Korea and Japan and apart from our traditional European markets which are in much decline due to the financial downturn in their respective economies, today, the tourist from the western and eastern continents are opting to closer destinations like the Mediterranean countries due to travelling and can be done by car, train or coach to reach the desired destination within a few hours in comparison to flying a minimum of 7-10 hours if they are to chose a destination like Sri Lanka or any other in Asia.

We must also create an out of the ordinary appeal to what we have been offering in the past for our visitors. In today's context, a majority of the younger generation in every country travel overseas for their holidays and prefer to select destinations of interest to them only, compared to the past, where the mature tourist, who was much interested in destinations with emphasis on culture, history and archaeology, are more common to most of the travel destinations which is also supported by natural tropical beaches and seafood delicacies.

We need to start re-thinking and work to create the environment conducive to a much younger traveller such as promoting water sports, surfing, sailing and yachting. Organising competitions in the region on a regular basis try and negotiate with world yachting organisations to put a great beach like Passikudah and showcase it as a stop in their global events.

We must also get regional passenger cruise liners to make calls at the Hambantota port or even have stream berths at Passikudah beach and provide the link for the tourist to enjoy a 12-hour transit stop over to go ashore and spend time including feasting on the great sea food delicacies of Sri Lanka. Wildlife tourism also can be included into tourist programmes, as we have Yala for elephants and the Kumana wet lands with local and migrant birds.

We can visualize our volume tourist markets being from India and China, visiting Sri Lanka for the next 2 decades as both these countries today have an affordable middle working class of more than 200 million people each and posses substantial disposable incomes. In general they also have a weakness in enjoying and spending their disposable money in patronising the casino culture, which will be an attraction that will be sought out and to cater to this requirement, we can either have a few large scale casinos in the quality of Macau or Vegas in the east, even close to Mattala Airport or Hambantota port where they can easily visit by flight or travelling on cruise ships. In the alternate, a small cruise line operator exclusively with casino entertainment can also be provided within the Bay of Bengal waters during the season.

Mihin Lanka will lead

Sri Lanka's budget airline Mihin Lanka should be taking the initiative to market and brand the eastern beaches as an alternate destination to Sri Lanka for tourism. During the initial period, Mattala cannot depend on regular commercial airlines to land their long haul flights until economical passenger loads start to generate and with a much needed aggressive promotional effort by the travel community through their network of travel agencies.

Mihin Lanka has to start operating IT-charter flights for the initial period and popularise the destination Mattala as the new 'Crystal Beach of Asia' and make it known to the international and Asian travel markets, during the interim period where Mihin Lanka will also have to offer very special flight rates to group tour/travel operators.

Finally, it must b mentioned here that efficient domestic transport linkage from Mattala Airport and Hambantota Port to our eastern beach destinations should be taking the shortest travel time for a tourist to reach his or her hotel, so that they can spend more time at the destination instead on the road on a car or coach or ferry.

Other potential commercial options

In addition to tourism, other possible commercially contributing factors can be identified as an airline service hub for servicing and maintaining spare parts inventory in agreement with airline OEM's (Original Equipment Manufacturers). Value additional services in logistics for international brands of high-tech goods and the exporting of fresh produce and fruits provided that our agricultural programmes is methodically cultivated to harvest large quantities of fresh produce that can be exported. Canning can be a good alternative for our Sri Lankan tropical fruits as canned fruits are served at all European hotels as the lack of fresh tropical fruit due to their climatic conditions. The government should also seriously look at these alternative commercial avenues as an overall supportive to boost Mattala's future success.

Formulate a think tank group

The country's administration must involve travel industry hands-on professionals, private sector and visionary persons who can advise policy makers with the realistic road map and strategy when it comes to national interest, when projects of this magnitude are been embarked on for the betterment of our national economy.