Sri Lanka Tourism targets USD 5 Bn. revenue for 2025

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Sri Lanka tourism will target USD 5 billion revenue for 2025 and will have a series of new promotions to increase Chinese arrivals, said Chairman, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority Buddhika Hewawasam.

In an interview with ‘Daily News Business’ yesterday he said that President Anura Kumar Dissanayake’s visit to China would be a timely and great boost to ‘up’ the tourist arrivals from China to Sri Lanka which was number one source destination during the pre COVID era. “True today it has dropped to the fifth place and we want to elevate this to number three position by year-end,” he said.

He said that in addition to the President’s visit they will also have a series of other marketing campaigns especially targeting the Chinese market this year. “We will also bring in Chinese influencers and arrange media FAM tours to Sri Lanka. We will also work closely with some of the leading Chinese Cable TV networks to create a ‘bigger media buzz’ towards Sri Lanka.”

Hewawasam, an aviation and travel industry professional, is also the Manager of the Sri Lanka of International Air Transport Association (IATA) said that SriLankan Airlines too are expected to add more frequency to China and add more destinations in the country.

“The airline is also expected to reactivate some of the stalled destinations (after C-19 pandemic) to some Chinese cities while current airlines that fly to Colombo are expected to add frequency. Sri Lanka which earned around USD 3 billion last year will increase this to USD 5 billion end 2025. This is mainly through attracting high spenders especially from untapped Indian destinations and other markets.”

There is an increase in India’s high end clientele especially from states like Gujarat and North Indian states and we have planned a specific marketing campaign to woo them to Sri Lanka. The presence of new Indian hotels such as ITC and added conference and five-star room inventory due to the opening of Cinnamon Life will also attract this high market segment. In addition, with the minimum room rate off we also see an increase in the Indian wedding and MICE market emerging.

Sri Lanka is experiencing the usual seasonal boom of arrivals and in December the country after a long period recorded over 11,000 arrivals per day. “This positive trend will go on till end March and for the off season we are targeting markets like Gulf and Australia to fill the seasonal void.”

“These initiatives will help to bolster arrivals from the current 2 million to 3 million by end 2025.”

He said that he was completely against short seasonal Sri Lanka destination campaigns like ‘So Sri Lanka’, ‘You come back for more’ which were originated by advertising agencies. “We want a ’bottom-up approach’ from the industry for this,” he added.

Shirajiv Sirimane

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