Sri Lanka tourist arrivals have some amazing numbers

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Written by Linda Hohnholz

While tourist arrivals have soared by 18% in the month of March to 157,051 and cumulative as of the end of the 1st quarter to 478,838 with a growth of 13.6%, these numbers are not reflective in the ov

While tourist arrivals have soared by 18% in the month of March to 157,051 and cumulative as of the end of the 1st quarter to 478,838 with a growth of 13.6%, these numbers are not reflective in the overall occupancy of the formal sector which is worrying, given that the formal sector pays all their dues such as taxes and levies as stipulated by the government which help the country do global promotions, voiced Chief Guest Rohantha Athukorala, the Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau at the Ceylon Hotel School Graduates Association launch of a hotel show 2015 at hotel Taj Samudra.

Athukorala, analyzing the numbers, commented that the Western European traveler has increased it’s choice by 17.7% to 169,330 visitors with the UK growing by 14.8%, Germany by 17.5%, France by 12.6% as of the 1st quarter 2015, while China is catapulting at 84.5% growth and India is still the number one market with a growth of 19.6% said Athukorala.

May be it’s time that we did some focused promotions with the formal sector to see how we can plow back sone of the money that they have contributed to the overall promotional fund, said Rohantha Athukoraka the new thinking chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau who has an extensive public sector experience like at EDB, Tea Board, Industrial Development Board, and also being a Chairman of a pivotal export institution in the past.

He acknowledged that there is a perineal debate if it’s the large organizations or the SME’s need to be assisted by government entities, but he guesses some hard decisions will have to be made to regarding the the occupancy of the formal sector to be in line with the informal sector traveler pick up, voiced Athukorala.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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