With the growing people-to-people contact between China and Sri Lanka, several exchange visits took place in the last twelve months. In addition to official visits, there were exchanges of cultural troupes and delegations, dancers and musicians and film exchanges, and visits by academics, school teachers and religious leaders.
Continuous promotional campaigns as well as these visits have strengthened the awareness about the two countries among the people, resulting in a rapid increase in tourism between the two countries.
Sri Lanka expects more than 150,000 tourists to arrive from China in 2023 to set an all-time annual record. It is expected to grow further in the next few years, making China the third largest in the list of tourist arrivals, after India and Russia. China currently occupies the sixth place in terms of tourist arrivals but the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) 
expects this to change.
Expansion of tourism was one of the main focuses of Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena during his talks with Chinese leaders last week in Kunming and Dali in Yunnan. “Chinese tourist arrivals have been one of the key strengths of the Sri Lankan tourism industry. After the COVID-19 pandemic when China decided to open its country allowing citizens to travel abroad, in February 2023, the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism officially announced Sri Lanka among the 20 countries they recommended. This has been an important contributor to national economic recovery,” he said at the 7th China–South Asia Expo in Yunnan and added, “I take this opportunity to invite you all to visit Sri Lanka, my country the Pearl of the Indian Ocean.”
Earlier this year, China opened outward tourism and over the last few months agreements were reached to increase Chinese flights to Colombo.
According to Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB), revenue from Sri Lanka’s lucrative post-war tourism industry grew 32.2 percent in the first two months of this year to 161.2 million U.S. dollars when compared with the previous year, partly helped by a whopping 119.2 percent boost of arrivals from China.
Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) stated that earnings from Sri Lanka’s tourism industry rose to 1.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2013 with 1.17 million arrivals. It added that the income from tourism rose from 122 million U.S. dollars to 161.2 million for the same period this year.
In the last seven months, the top six sources of tourist arrivals were India, Russia, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and China, accounting for nearly 50 percent of tourist arrivals.
China led the arrival numbers for East Asian countries recording a substantial increase. This is largely due to massive advertising campaigns launched in China by the Sri Lankan Government and greater engagement with Chinese media.
During the visit of Prime Minister Gunawardena, the Chinese television stations telecast documentaries on Sri Lanka depicting the major places of tourist attraction. The media interviews with the Prime Minister by Yunnan Television and Phonics Television in Hong Kong telecast clippings of picturesque places in Sri Lanka during the interview.
Tourism Minister Harin Fernando said Sri Lanka was in the first set of countries designated for group travel by China after the country re-opened for tourism after lifting Coronavirus pandemic restrictions. “As China is an agent-driven market, we have done four roadshows in towns across China with direct air connectivity with Colombo.”
During the meetings held by Prime Minister Gunawardena with Wang Yi, Political Bureau Member of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, Secretary of the Yunnan CPC Provincial Committee, Wang Ning and Governor of the Yunnan Province, Wang Yubo, they agreed to provide the necessary support to increase tourists and also to increase flights to Sri Lanka by Chinese airlines.
In 2019, before the pandemic, 1.9 million tourists visited Sri Lanka. In the previous year, 2018, until Easter Sunday bomb blasts created a panic in the industry, 265,965 tourists came from China.
At the moment there are daily flights to Colombo from several Chinese cities. They include Beijing, Chengdu, Kunming and Chongqing. Sri Lanka is also in talks to increase flights by China Southern and Chongqing Airlines.
The SLTDA anticipates revenue of 2 billion US dollars in 2023 with more Chinese tourists expected to arrive in the coming months. Its spokesman told the media that the number of Chinese tourists in Sri Lanka is picking up and will increase in the coming months.
From January to May 2023, Sri Lanka welcomed 503,000 tourists in total, an improvement from the 719,978 that arrived in all of 2022. The island nation, still recovering from its worst currency crisis in decades, had originally targeted earnings of 1,550,000 US dollars from tourism for 2023, but it now projects up to 2,000,000 by the end of the year.
According to statistics of SLTDA, a tourist is expected to spend 185 to 195 dollars per day in Sri Lanka. Many Chinese tourists bring in a lot of foreign currency due to their spending on shopping and their investment in gemstones.
“There is a vast potential for religious tourism as many Chinese are interested in visiting the Temple of Tooth Relic in Kandy,” the Chief incumbent of the Three-Pagoda Chongsheng Temple in Dali, Yunnan told Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena when the latter visited the ancient temple, which is 700 years old. The Chongsheng Temple is situated in a vast area and it’s famous for three tower-like Pagodas. One of the towers Pagoda leaned to the side over the years, but the experts believe there is no danger of collapsing this unique heritage pagoda.
Most Venerable Chong Hua recalled his earlier meeting with the Prime Minister at the International Vesak Conference in Thailand and blessed him with health and strength to continue his services to Sri Lanka and the people and to enhance Buddhist and cultural ties between China and Sri Lanka. I am sure more and more Chinese Buddhists will visit Sri Lanka in the coming years, he said.
Sugeeswara Senadhira
