Sri Lanka to tap Indian visitors to boost their tourism revenue

Nalin Perera, Director General, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, said that tourism is the third biggest revenue earner for the country and moves are afoot to take it up to the second position within the next couple of years. If we go by the trends this year, there is no denying that the country is moving in that very direction, he added.

The worst seems to be over and Sri Lanka is betting big on in-bound tourists from India for its economic turnaround. In keeping with this, the neighbouring country, often known and promoted as Island Escape, is initiating various measures to attract the attention of a larger number of tourists from India. Resuming direct flight connectivity from different Indian destinations, including Kolkata, luring movie makers to exotic shooting destinations with handsome tax sops, incentives and other facilities, introducing the concept of ‘home-stay’ for budget tourists, laying increasing thrust on MICE segment and attracting Indian hotel chains to set up star category hotel properties are some of the options explored by the Sri Lankan tourism authorities to bring its tourism back on rails, especially after braving an unprecedented crisis.

From January onwards Sri Lanka has hosted nearly 960,000 foreign tourists, out of which 22-24 per cent are Indians. The target is to surpass the one million mark by the end of the current calendar and 2.5 million mark by the end of 2024 (calendar year). Tourism revenue from the two years is expected to be $2.5 billion and $ 5 billion respectively. It is a safe bet that a significant part of this will come from Indian tourists, said Nalin Perera, Director General, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority.

He said that tourism is the third biggest revenue earner for the country and moves are afoot to take it up to the second position within the next couple of years. If we go by the trends this year, there is no denying that the country is moving in that very direction, he added.

“Movies are major crowd pullers in that they are capable of influencing the mindset of the cine-goers. Realising this major potential that augurs well for both nations, the Sri Lankan government prefers being supportive of the Indian film industry and motivate filmmakers to ensure that Sri Lanka makes for a perfect locale. It is blessed with Nature’s bountiful. That way, the lsland-nation has spots that are mesmerising and can sync with any storyline. It suits their purpose of promoting various parts of our country as tourism destinations. We are offering financial support (of paying back a significant per cent of total spent on movie making in that country), single window clearance, so on and so forth,” said Perera.

Thisum Jayasuriya, Chairman, Sri Lanka Convention Bureau, said that at present nearly 11 per cent of Sri Lanka’s in-bound tourists are business tourists and the rest being vacation tourists. “We are now reaching out to Indian corporates of various sizes to promote Sri Lanka as a preferred MICE segment and take the percentage of business tourists to 18 per cent over the next one year. We are adding various amenities, facilities to attract this segment. We are also reaching out to Indian hotel owners to set up properties in our country. ITC’s hotel property, which got delayed due to the pandemic and other crisis, seems well set to be thrown open soon,” said Jayasuriya.

With the socio-economic situations in that country getting back to normalcy, the Sri Lankan tourism authorities are also putting increasing thrust on tea tourism, eco-tourism and home-stay facilities, Perera said.

“Tourists volume cannot move up substantially unless there is better connectivity with Indian cities. There are certain difficulties at this point in time, but our national air carrier is weighing all options to resume direct flight operations between Colombo and cities like Kolkata as early as possible,” he said.