Tourism arrivals affected by airport closure, SriLankan pull out from Paris, Frankfurt | Daily News

Tourism arrivals affected by airport closure, SriLankan pull out from Paris, Frankfurt

Target of 3 million arrivals likely to reduce in 2017

Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka will definitely be below the target in 2017,Sri Lanka Tourism Chairman, Paddy Withana said.

He said that one reason for this will be the closure of the Colombo airport for repairs and also the discontinuation of SriLankan Airlines flights to Frankfurt and Paris. “Tourists always prefer a quick connection and German arrivals are likely to reduce due to this.”

He also said that the airport closure too will have a negative impact on arrivals. “All these will not allow us to go for the target of 3 million arrivals.”

Sri Lanka recorded around 2.1 million arrivals for 2016 and 224,791, for the month of December alone.

Meanwhile in contrast an official from Sri Lanka Inbound Tour Operator’s Association said the re use of the Mattala Airport by SriLankan Airlines to Chinese destinations will allow Chinese tourists to use the Deep South as well. “It’s now up to the hotels in the South and Tourist associations to capitalise on this and pick up passengers from Mattala.”

He however said that the Hambantota Harbour special economic opening negative publicity had damaged the image of Sri Lanka to some extent. “A fresh international marketing campaign is needed to heal this wound.”

Tourism Minister John Amaratunge predicted that the industry will record an income of $ 4.5 billion in 2017 with 2.5 million tourist arrivals as Sri Lanka gains much attention from tourists globally next year.Sri Lanka has earned a record revenue in the excess of US $2.5 billion up to the end of September. Withana, a professional hotelier with over 30 years in the industry said that due to various tourist ‘spots’ being opened up in the North East and the Deep South, today the ‘average room night stay’ too has increased to almost 11 nights per stay.

The country also maintained high occupancy levels for 2016 and ended the year with around 77%. He also predicted that the industry would collect around Rs. 2.2 billion from CESS for 2016.The Chairman said that tourism today is on an upward trend and one of the key drivers for the tourism growth was the peace dividend in Sri Lanka. “I must also add that the volatile situation in some of the popular tourist destinations especially in Europe too has helped Sri Lanka to attractadditional tourists.”

“This is also the reason why big global players like, Hyatt, Movenpick, Shangri-La, OZO, Anantara, Dusit Thani, and several others have opened in Sri Lanka.”

“In addition existing hotels are adding capacity while several local players too have entered the industry which is very encouraging. “Today we have 33,000 star class rooms and these will significantly increase after opening of several new hotels next year.”

Withana said that job creation too has increased and today tourism is a major contributor to the GDP.

 

“One of the advantages of the industry is that the benefits as well as revenue trickles down to the grassroot levels and dependents from the industry too have increased.”

He also said that the Port City project will have a major positive impact for the tourism industry. “The proposed Marina, shopping complexes, apartments and recreation facilities will not only bring huge foreign direct investments but also additional tourists.”

Withana said that the pulling out of SriLankan Airlines from Europe and the airport closure for three months will have a negative impact for the industry. “But this is short term and the runway repair is a crying need to stop a would be “airline disaster.” Commenting on the World Tourism Market (WTM) next month in London he said it is a very important event since they will be able to aggressively market Sri Lanka not only in London but in the entire Europe. “For the first time we will conduct three road shows in London to promote Sri

Lanka’s tourism,” Withana added.


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