Chalaka Gajabahu, Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) while speaking to Travel Trade Insider stressed that the present situation in the island nation is conducive for tourism activities.
Talking about the current situation and expectations from the Indian market, Gajabahu said that irrespective of the negative media coverage, the fact remains that normalcy is returning in Sri Lanka.
“There is sanity in the country, no more petrol or gas issues, and a lot of things have been sorted especially from the tourism point of view. The numbers are slowly growing again specifically from markets like India, the UK, and Europe. We are also receiving a good response from other markets like North America, Australia, and New Zealand,” said Gajabahu.
Sri Lanka received more than 74,000 tourists from the Indian market from January to July 2022, thus making it the top source market, followed by the UK and Russia. With an objective to shore up their country’s economy, Sri Lanka Tourism is planning to woo a greater number of Indian tourists. This year so far has shown considerable growth compared with the same period of 2021. Sri Lanka is keeping up hopes for a better tourist season with these arrivals and targeting mostly Indian visitors as both nations share the same cultural and historic backgrounds, contributing a great deal to its progress in rejuvenating the tourism industry.
“We are optimistic about the growth from the Indian outbound market. Sri Lanka being a close neighbour is a natural tourism partner of India. There are a lot of tourism opportunities between the two countries, from both cultural and religious points of view. We have strong flight connectivity between the two countries. Sri Lankan Airlines flies mostly to all major Indian destinations,” noted Gajabahu.
Sri Lanka’s tourism industry forecasts a million travellers with an income of over $ 1.75 billion by the end of the year. Sri Lanka has been a popular destination among globetrotters mainly because of its diverse tourism products and experiences. Sri Lanka is well known for its wildlife, wellness, climate, heritage adventure, and most importantly its friendly people.
“We are also very working closely with the Indian travel trade fraternity to promote Sri Lanka as a tourist destination in India. We are hoping to host the convention of the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) in the near future. We also appointed legendary cricketer, Sanath Jayasuriya to promote tourism, which I think is a good move as India and Sri Lanka both countries share a mutual love for the sport of cricket. We are also very keen to tap the Indian film industry and are exploring the possibilities to promote film shoots in Sri Lanka,” said Gajabahu.
As per the Chairman, the tourism industry in Sri Lanka is expective a strong international tourist inflow beginning next year. “We have challenges like resource management as due to the pandemic, a lot of talent moved to other countries. We have started working on our strategic plans to retain our talented people in the country. We are looking at re-boosting, regenerating, and reconnecting the tourism process, but it will take some time,” added Gajabahu.
Sri Lanka was further able to strengthen its cultural and historical friendship with its Indian counterparts by organizing the first ever ‘’Murugan Trail ‘’ from South India, which was a Media FAM Tour organized by the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Deputy High Commission in Chennai, from 3rd to 13th August 2022.
The main purpose of organizing this FAM trip was to promote the Murugan Trail to South Indian tourists, who have a deep connection with Lord Murugan and the festivals as Hindu devotees. Nallur festival in Jaffna and Kataragama Esala Festival are held annually to pay homage to Lord Murugan.
“Sri Lanka is absolutely safe to travel and this is the message we want to spread. Tourism is extremely important to the overall economy in Sri Lanka and we hope that we will soon reach our old glory in terms of international tourist arrivals,” said Gajabahu