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Sri Lanka’s 5-year tourist arrivals target achievement streak ends

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5 January 2016 02:54 am - 0     - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

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By Shabiya Ali Ahlam
Sri Lanka’s tourism landscape saw the end of a five-year achievement streak with 2015 being the first year in the post-war period where the country failed to strike the arrival goal.
Having welcomed a total of 1,798,380 tourists, Sri Lanka narrowly missed to reach the 1.8 million mark, despite the month of December having witnessed a bumper arrival of 206,114, the highest for 2015.
The initial tourist arrival target set for 2015 was two million but was downsized by 200,000 when the new unity government took over last year.

Since 2010, Sri Lanka has been successful in its efforts in reaching the set targets where in most years it was realized before the end of 12 months.
Kicking off the post-war era by surpassing the 600,000 arrival target in 2010, the local tourism sphere continued to gather pace and crossed the 750,000 target in 2011, one million in 2012, 1.2 million in 2013 and 1.5 million in 2014.
However, the country realized its 2014 target only after a data revision, which led to the credibility of state records being questioned.
Although the year did not end on a high note as expected, the provisional data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) showed that the arrivals for 2015 grew by 17.8 percent year-on-year (YoY) from the 1,527,153 arrivals recorded last year
The 12 months’ cumulative data showed that in 2015 Western Europe emerged as the largest sourcing market with 552,442 tourists, while India was the nation’s top tourism market, bringing in 316,247 visitors.
Gathering momentum was the Chinese market that showed a 67.6 percent growth YoY having brought 214,783 tourists from that country, making East Asia the fastest growing regional market with a progress of 29.4 percent.
Russia however continues to move towards a negative growth trajectory and saw arrivals for the year dip by 11.3 percent YoY.
During December, the largest sourcing market was Western Europe that expanded by 11.9 percent compared to the corresponding month in 2014. Alongside the United Kingdom, that recorded a 17.3 percent increase with 12,762 travellers, the top performing countries included Germany and France with 11,323 and 7,061, respectively.
South Asia, the second largest regional source for the month, which expanded by 25.1 percent, saw arrivals from India reach 35,437 (35.5 percent growth YoY) making it the top market for the nation for 12 consecutive months. Although the region performed well, arrivals from Pakistan declined by 10.5 percent YoY with 2.485 visitors.
Continuing to be a steady contributor to local tourism was the East Asian region with 32,738 travellers coming out as the third largest regional source for the month with a 12 percent growth YoY.
China, witnessing a 52.3 percent growth YoY, remained as the second largest market for the 11th consecutive month, bringing in 15,843 travellers. Dampened growth was observed from Indonesia and Singapore where arrivals dropped by 43.2 percent and 11 percent.
The Tourism Ministry last week said that for 2016 the island nation will aim at attracting 2.2 million visitors with a 26 percent annual growth. 
Under the key strategic objectives laid out, the ministry said it looks to increase the average daily expenditure of a tourist up to US $ 200. These efforts are said to allow the industry generate the total revenue up to US $ 2.75 billion.
While plans are being conceptualized to position Sri Lanka as a top tourist destination, the key industry stakeholders have repeatedly expressed the need of having a quality global promotional exercise.

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