Western Markets Neglected For Three Years: Dr. Athukorala

Western markets have been neglected for the last three years, while Rs. 860 million had been pumped to China alone, said Dr. Rohantha Athukorala, Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau.

Addressing the Colombo Chapter EGM of SKAL on July 26 as the keynote speaker, Dr. Athukorala said that it needs to be balanced if we are to name the industry financially attractive.

Dr. Athukorala, who has served the 12-billion-dollar Export Development Board and the Sri Lanka Tea Board for the last five years, noted that the travel and tourism industry is going through radical change and the country had to adjust accordingly. “The formal sector being flat on growth in the first quarter, whilst tourist receipts were up 14% are indications of the reform required on policy and private sector business model,” said Dr. Athukorala.

Sri Lanka Tourism can be proud of the end July performance of 2015 with visitor arrivals increasing by 16.8%, crossing the one million visitor arrival mark and July recording a 31.2% increase, said Dr. Athukorala and added that Sri Lanka had to stop chasing visitor arrival numbers and focus on attracting the $250-per-day guests into the country in order to make the industry financially viable.

Dr. Athukorala’s logic of targeting the minimum threshold traveller of $250 was that given the high cost of construction and labour in Sri Lanka, unless there’s a hotel property that can attract a $250-per-day guest, it will not be financial viable.

“If not, the owner will have to wait for asset enhancement alone, which is not a strong business model that can be marketed for a potential investor. Whilst we can do all the focussed B2B marketing on a private-public partnership to attract a $250 tourist, Sri Lanka needs a strong brand building communication campaign targeting UK/Europe travellers who nets in a 22% of the net proceeds,” observed Dr. Athukorala.

He also pointed out that the reason for the informal sector booming were the online travel agencies driving growth. “A typical dot-com has over 4,000 entities in the list whist at SLTDA, we have around 1,200 registered, which explains the gap on the number on arrivals. We don’t have to go far. Even in the formal sector, on line booking was just 4-5% around four years back and today it has shot up to as high as 40 per cent, which means the business model has to change. The industry is going through radical change and now the industry has to align. We cannot change the game. We have to now do reforms on policy and as a business model,” said Dr. Athukorala.

Whilst commending the SKAL members for the strong private-public sector partnership on the below-the-line marketing strategies, he urged the industry to focus to strategically positioning the country with brand equity developing initiatives and be vocal in an appropriate manner post the 17th August so that policy makers give priority to this issue and the radical changes that are required in the industry, he said.

“The good news is that the top 8 global advertising agencies have expressed their interest in the Global Tourism tender pitch. We must now get things firmed up for a quick launch globally,” said Dr. Athukorala.

Skål, the only international professional organisation of tourism leaders around the world promoting global tourism and friendship, had invited award winning marketer Dr. Rohantha Athukorala, who is also the Commissioner General Sri Lanka for World Expo 2015, to be the Guest Speaker on the theme, ‘Our Competitive Advantage’ at the Colombo Chapter EGM in Colombo under the leadership of Skal President Dushy Jayaweera.

SKAL was founded in 1932 in Paris by travel managers and the idea of international goodwill and friendship grew and, in 1934, the ‘Association Internationale des Skål Clubs’ was formed with Florimond Volckaert as its first President, who is considered the ‘Father of Skål’. Today, the organization has earned itself the reputation to be the ‘Voice of the Tourism Industry’ and in Sri Lanka attracts the best names of the sector making it a key stakeholder in the industry.