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| Thursday, 15 July 2004 |
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Lankans now bitten by overseas travel bug by Chandani Jayatilleke Sri Lankans travelling abroad for numerous business and leisure activities are on the increase. In fact the number of outbound travellers has surpassed the number of inbound travellers over the last few years, according to the travel and tourism industry.
The total figure of outbound travellers last year was within the 520,000 range while the inbound travellers were little over 500,000. The Tourist Board hopes that the arrivals this year will reach the 600,000 level. However, Nihal Perera, President, Travel Agents' Association of Sri Lanka says that the outbound travel figure may exceed the arrival figure this year as well. The number of outbound travellers issued by the Sri Lanka Tourist Board does not clarify the nature of travellers and there is no analysis given to identify the number of travellers by the category. The figure is simply calculated according to figures obtained from the Dept of Immigration and Emigration. The outbound travellers, however, include leisure and pleasure travellers, pilgrims, business and Sri Lankan expatriates. Outbound is increasing, specially because the avenues to travel abroad are increasing following various travel packages put out by the leisure industry in many countries and incentive schemes offered by certain local companies for their employees. People also travel abroad to attend various trade fairs, business conventions and other promotional activities organised by certain companies in Sri Lanka, Perera who is also the Chairman of a leading travel company Sparklink Travels said. "My company alone has handled many such tours including the tours to China Canton Fair over the last few years." Most pilgrims make trips to destinations such as Mecca, India, Lourdes in France and Fatima in Portugal, where there are no travel restrictions and they often take families too. It is also a common thing now that airlines are offering attractive tour packages to countries such as India, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore and the Maldives during Summer. In recent few weeks we have seen the newspapers flooded with advertisements by airlines, where they offered air tickets at handsomely slashed prices and the travel agents said, the locals rushed to book these cut-rate tickets. The number of companies offering holiday packages to their employees is also increasing. "In modern companies, employers appreciate and recognise the efficient work rendered by their staff members by way of offering them holiday packages abroad. This is a growing trend," Perera said. Another segment that comes under outbound travellers are the sales agents for various products such as home appliances and electronic goods. The best sales agents also get trips abroad offered by their respective companies, he said. Why do airlines offer such packages? There are many reasons. May/August is usually known as a low season for European tourists. Therefore, many countries in this part of the world offer attractive packages for locals and visitors from neighbouring countries to keep abreast in the industry. Secondly, this will be a good opportunity to airlines to expose their products and woo passengers to travel with them the next time as well. Thirdly, it is also an opportunity for the countries to project their destinations as ideal tourism locations for a different segment of tourists, Perera added. He is of the view that Sri Lanka also should do a bit more to get visitors from the region and focus its diverse tourism attractions. "We hope that many people would visit Sri Lanka, this year, with the improved political situation here. We need more and more niche products such as eco kind of tourism projects to get more high-end travellers," he said. Explaining the economic impact of this issue, Hasitha Premaratne, a research analyst of the HNB Stockbrokers said that an increasing number of outbound travellers means that some part of our money is going out. "It could affect the overall currency situation. On the other hand it means that our competitors have done pretty well to promote tourism in their countries by attracting our people," he said. However, he said, if there's a mismatch, between the figures of outbound and inbound travellers, we must do better to attract more travellers into the country without getting cautioned about outbound travellers. "It's actually not a situation to look from a negative eye and panic about. Rather than looking at negatively, and discourage outbound travelling, we must try to improve our tourism infrastructure and provide more facilities to both local and foreign travellers," he said. In reality, Sri Lanka's tourism package is diverse. We have better places to go to. But we need to develop facilities for domestic travellers and should have more theme parks and shopping sprees where quality, designer label clothing is available. "People are going out to see things which are not available here and also to shop for designer labels. It's not that we don't have them here. But there should be major improvements," Premaratne said. According to him, it can also make a positive impact on people's thinking, specially when they notice the discipline and development in some of these countries. For some people it's a kind of brainwash. Mr and Mrs R. Wanigasuriya, two senior executives from Colombo made use of the recent promotions to go to Singapore and Malaysia. Though they had travelled a couple of times to Europe before, it was their first experience in East Asia - that was also in mighty (economically) Singapore. Speaking to the Daily News Mrs. Wanigasuriya said that they were amazed to see the high quality development that Singapore has achieved and the standard of living the people have in that country. Their discipline is amazing and it was a good educative tour for our children, Wanigasuriya who took their children along with them said. "They came back home with refreshed minds." She added that it was a good deal by the airline, as they could afford to travel with their children. Amal and Ruvini Siriwardene, a young couple from Kelaniya chose a package to go to the Maldives. "We wanted to go the Maldives for our honeymoon. But we couldn't afford the trip during that time, because the hotels there are very expensive. With a recent package offered by a local company, we were able to make our dream come true," Ruvini who made use of a summer package to go overseas said. From January to April this year, 162,000 vellers visited Sri Lanka, compared to 154,000 travellers the previous year. |
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