Doubling the numbers - Sri Lanka fast-tracks tourism

SRI LANKA is to appoint a global advertising agency to take its tourism story worldwide as new infrastructure comes on-stream and the Government prepares to unveil a raft of new incentives for both local and foreign investors.

But new casinos are not on the list . . . 

Sri Lanka attracted 1.5 million tourists in 2014, and has ambitious plans to lift that number to 2.5 million in 2016. The key target markets are the UK, China and India.

Tourist arrivals grew by 32.1 per cent yearon-year in July 2015, and cumulatively by 16.8 per cent on-year for the first seven months.

Mahen Kariyawasan, a leading private sector figure in Sri Lanka’s inbound tourism industry, and a key advisor to Government tourism bodies, says tourism contributed US$1.4 billion to the national economy last year.

Britain is Sri Lanka’s main source market with India coming in second, but there has been ‘tremendous growth’ from China over the past three years, Kariyawasan told ATI.

“China is now our third-largest market, and I think that very soon it will be number one – the reality is that we now have 22 flights weekly in and out of China.”

In infrastructure, says Kariyawasan, a number of new international hotels are on the way. These include a Shangri-La in Colombo, due to open in the first quarter of 2017, and a Grand Hyatt, also in Colombo, to open in 2016.

Movenpick, the Swiss chain, will open a property in Colombo in 2016 and is reportedly looking for a second site in Sri Lanka for a resort hotel. Marriott, which operates the luxury boutique property Colombo Marriott, is currently building the Weligama Bay Marriott Resort and Spa in southern Sri Lanka.

Apart from international groups, a number of Sri Lankan owners are constructing smaller hotels catering to all sectors of the tourism market, from budget to luxury boutique.

Kariyawasan says expansion and upgrading of Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport is under way with funding from Japan. The project covers expansion of runways and upgrading of the lobby areas and arrivals and departure halls.

The Government, he says, is encouraging further foreign investment into tourism, and he is expecting new investment policies to be announced after the mid-August national elections. “There will be new economic zones announced right around the country.”

But casinos will not be on the preferred list. “The present Government will not allow new casinos to come in, the casinos already in place will continue,” Kariyawasan told ATI.

“The casinos have a designated area in the entertainment area of Colombo. But as with the famous Australian casino giant (Jamie Packer), we had some issues with new entrants.” (Plans previously approved for Crown Casino to estab

lish a casino complex in Colombo were abandoned following the change of Government in Sri Lanka in February this year.)

“The Prime Minister is very keen on tourism,” Kariyawasan says, “and he wants to fast-track the new promotional campaigns we have planned, especially for Europe.

Sri Lanka Tourism shortly will also be appointing a global advertising agency to take the Sri Lanka story worldwide.

“We also want to do much more promotion on Australia, which is a growth area for us. People in Australia know Sri Lanka, but they do not know what it has to offer.” In 2014, 54,000 Australians visited Sri Lanka, but probably 60 per cent of these were in the VFR (visiting friends and relatives) market.

Kariyawasan says Sri Lanka’s national airline, Air Lanka, will be returning to Australia, serving both Sydney and Melbourne, when a current restructuring of the airline is completed and new aircraft come into service. Air Lanka did fly to Australia previously, but withdrew because of the seasonal nature of the market.

Kariawasan says that since the end of Sri Lanka’s 30-year civil war three years ago, tourist areas based around Trimcomlee in the northeast of the country have been re-opened. These include the pristine beaches of Kalkudah, Passekudah and Arugam Bay. “Few Australians have yet discovered our famous surfing beaches,” he says. “Come, see! 

“Australians have always gone to Bali and to Thailand. Sri Lanka is one country with a thousand destinations. We have a cross-section of cultural attractions, natural parks and natural heritage — with the highest density of elephants in the world — and our surfing beaches. You would need to visit a number of countries to experience what is on offer in 10 days in Sri Lanka.”

Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is co-ordinated through the Ministry of Tourism and Sports and three separate tourism entities — the Tourism Promotion Bureau, the Tourism Development Authority (a regulatory entity), and the Sri Lanka Convention Bureau, which deals with the MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions, exhibitions) market. There is also a Sri Lanka Tourism School, which provides training courses for tour guides and hotel staff.

Kariyawasan is one of a number of private sector tourism representatives who sit on the Tourism Promotion Bureau as advisors, serving a three-year term.

He is a Director of both the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau and the Sri Lanka Convention Bureau, and Chairman of the 200-strong Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators.

Kariyawasan is Executive Director of the Andrew Group of Companies, formed by his father 45 years ago to offer travel and transport services to the tourism industry.

The Group has a strong presence in the European and Asian (Korean and Japanese) markets, but is new to Australia, although Kariyawasan’s two children have been studying in Melbourne. His daughter, who has just graduated, will join the family business.

Kariyawasan says the cruise market is becoming increasingly important to Sri Lanka, with cruise vessels calling at both Colombo and Trincomalee. The MICE market, he adds, is also picking up in Colombo, and a new convention centre has just been completed at Hambantota, in the far south of Sri Lanka.

The previous Government built a second international airport at Hambantota, but the facility failed and all international airlines have now withdrawn services. The airport can handle aircraft up to the size of the A380. Kariyawasan says that, for the moment, it will be used as a hub for cargo and aircraft maintenance.

Hambantota has a population of only 23,000 against five million in Colombo. There are hopes that it can be developed as a tourist hub built around the abundant wild life attractions the region offers.