Sri Lanka “opens skies” to boost tourist arrivals : Ravi K
May 25, 2015 (LBO) – Sri lankas government says that the Indian ocean island will open skies as a way forward policy to improve tourist arrivals.
“This is the way forward” Ravi Karunanayake, Minister of Finance said.
Sri Lanka has two state owned airlines, Srilankan and the budget Mihin airlines.
Sri Lanka’s tourist arrivals rose 18 percent from a year earlier to 157,051 in March 2015, with Western European arrivals recovering after a lull during election in the island and China performing strongly, official data shows.
Total arrivals were up 13.6 percent from a year earlier to 478,838 in the first three months of the year.
The Minister was speaking at the two day forum on hospitality investment at Colombo.
Karunanayake also said that tourism will help to curb the gap in balance of payments in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka’s tourism earnings grew 29 percent to 1.94 billion US dollars in the 11 months to November 2014 while arrivals grew at a slower 20.3 percent, data showed.
“We want tourism to be frount runner in providing a solution for the balance of payment issue”
“Also we want Sri Lanka to be exploited”
“When we took over early this year, what we saw is that some of the European travelers were reluctant to come here,”
“But with the new government there is a favorable picture for Sri Lanka around the world,”
Growth in the Western European market which slowed to 11 percent in the peak winter season month of January amid Presidential elections in Sri Lanka recovered to grow 27.4 percent to 57,094 in March, data shows.
Sri Lanka targets to attract about 2.6 million tourists in year 2016.
However travel sector experts say the island is yet a having issues coping with large influx of travelers as there are shortages of skills in the industry as well as a room shortages.
