Chinese tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka records impressive growth following free visa programme
Chinese tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka have reportedly witnessed the highest growth by the end of the first week of the Sri Lankan government’s new free visa on arrival programme.
The Sunday Morning Business has reported that the increase in Chinese tourist arrivals suggest that the former second biggest tourism source market may regain its position this month.
Around 3,099 Chinese tourists had entered the country from 1 to 7 August, and if the trend continues, there would be a growth rate of 70-80% from the 6,926 Chinese tourists who entered the country in July, the news report states.
A total of 3,496 Chinese tourists visited Sri Lanka in June, which was a significant improvement from the arrival figure of 1,589 recorded in May.
China has long been Sri Lanka’s second biggest tourist generator with 268,952 tourists arriving in Sri Lanka in 2017.
However, the arrival numbers from China took a hit following the Easter Sunday attacks in April and the resultant travel advisories as well as security concerns.
According to the news report, during the first week of the free visa programme, the country has seen the overall arrival of 34,538 tourists from 48 countries. The total arrival figure for July was 115,701.
The number of tourist arrivals is expected to increase as the free visa programme receives greater attention from international markets.
Followed by China, Sri Lanka’s biggest tourist generator India looks likely to see the second highest growth rate of around 60% in August and has already seen 7,274 arrivals from 1 to 7 August, while its total July arrivals have stood at 18,309 tourists, the report has further stated.
China has now moved up the arrival rankings from the fifth spot in July to the third spot in the first week of August, while both India and France remained the same at the first and forth spots, respectively.
OSL take:
Sri Lanka’s tourism authorities have taken many initiatives to boost the country’s tourism industry that suffered a setback following the Easter Sunday attacks in April. However, the country’s tourism sector has shown an impressive growth in the past few months showing great signs of returning to normalcy. Tourist arrivals to the country have been increasing in the past few months. Also, authorities have planned many global promotional campaigns while the country’s tourism industry has offered many attractive packages and deals for the foreign travellers. Sri Lanka continues to maintain the top slot as the destination of the year in several key global travel publications. Therefore the Sri Lankan government’s visa free programme has resulted in an increase in tourist arrivals to the country. All this has resulted in the expansion of business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka’s tourism sector.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/15082019/Z_2 |