In 2009, 4.48 lakh tourists arrived in Sri Lanka and the numbers rose to 17.98 lakhs in 2015, according to the 2015 Annual Report of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL). Foreign exchange earnings from tourism ranked third, next to workers’ remittances and income from garment exports.

“The tourism industry is blooming in the Eastern and Northern provinces of the country,” the two regions hit hard by the strife. Seventy four tourism development projects including 56 in the East were completed in the past six years, according to the report.

An official in Jaffna said if the Palaly airport in Jaffna resumed flight services to Tiruchi, following the completion of the proposed modernisation with the technical and financial support of the Indian government, it would also result in greater tourist arrivals from India, especially central and southern parts of Tamil Nadu.

Tourist arrivals in 2015 recorded a 17.8 per cent increase over the previous year and 2015 revenue increased by 22.6 per cent.

Though India remained as the leading country of tourist origin with 3.16 lakh arrivals, tourists from China are evincing greater interest in Sri Lanka. Last year, the growth rate of Chinese tourists was 67.6 per cent with 2.15 lakh tourists visiting the country. However, in terms of regions, Western Europe continued to be the largest tourist origin with 5.52 lakh tourists.

“The travel and tourism's direct and total contribution to both the Gross Domestic Product and employment of Sri Lanka is comparatively lower than regional competitors such as Maldives, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia,” according to the report. Besides, insufficient hotel rooms, lack of skilled and trained manpower and “inadequate interest” of leading hotel chains are among the challenges being faced by the industry.

P. M. Withana, Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, told The Hindu that the authorities were taking various measures to take care of manpower requirements. These measures included workshops and courses, some of which covered the Eastern province. Top hotel chains such as Shangri-La and Hyatt were going ahead with their projects and many more were expected to materialise, he said. All these would address the issue of inadequacy in hotel rooms.

The tourist arrivals of 2015 recorded 17.8 per cent increase over that of 2014.

(by T. Ramakrishnan - thehindu.com)