SL Tourism to invest over Rs. 200 m on UK as arrivals spike in March to +36.9%

Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau Chairman Rohantha Athukorala at the Sri Lanka Power Boat training certification
program held at Club Bentota

Sri Lanka Tourism will invest more than Rs. 200 million on focused marketing activity in a combined private-public sector marketing spending spree in 2015 to attract top-quality tourists from UK, according to Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Chief Rohantha Athukorala,
He was speaking at the Sri Lanka Power Boat Super Pros International Certification Program, held at the Club Bentota which was graced by Deputy British High Commissioner Laura Davies and global certification specialists from the UK.
Athukorala said that as at the end of February, tourist arrivals stood at a modest +5.2% but in March it spiked by 36.9% to 16,191 travellers from the UK and cumulatively in the first quarter it clocked in 14.8% growth over last year to record 44,813 arrivals. However, he advised viewing these numbers with caution as the formal sector did not see this growth in occupancy which meant that the informal sector benefitted from most of the demand generation activity.
“We have to now make some difficult decisions and I am pleased to mention that private sector-partnered promotions have been approved by the Board of Directors SLTPB which will roll in as and when it makes marketing sense,” said Athukorala.
“In my estimate Sri Lanka will invest more than Rs. 200 million with a combined private and public sector demand generation program that will cut across the key markets of Manchester, Birmingham, London, Cardiff and Glasgow. But we will maintain a structured balance between push and pull strategies meaning the promotions to the trade and end consumer given the current structure of the relationship between Sri Lanka and UK travel industries.”