Sri Lanka charts course for high-end marine tourism with focus on shipwreck diving
Daily Mirror: Sri Lanka is actively pivoting towards high-value, experiential travel by heavily promoting its untapped marine tourism sector, with a strategic focus on shipwreck diving.
Recognising the growing global demand for immersive and sustainable underwater experiences, the local tourism authorities and Sri Lanka Navy have partnered to showcase the island’s rich maritime heritage to the adventure seekers and marine enthusiasts worldwide.
This shift aligns with broader economic goals to attract high-spending tourists, moving away from the traditional volume-based tourism towards a more lucrative, yield-driven model.
In line with this strategy, the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) is currently hosting three Serbian celebrity divers — Janez Kranjc, Ivana Orlovic Kranjc and Dorotea Dikic — from March 16 to 19.
Speaking at the launch event held in Colombo last week, Kranjc highlighted the island’s untapped potential, describing Sri Lanka as a “blue diamond” and noting that its wrecks and underwater marine life are a huge treasure that would attract the divers globally.
During their expedition, the divers are documenting underwater landscapes and historic wreck sites across key coastal destinations, including Colombo, Negombo, Mirissa, Kirinda and Galle. This targeted initiative aims to raise international awareness and firmly position Sri Lanka as an emerging, premier destination for underwater exploration.
To maximise global reach, the newly created promotional content from the expedition, combined with the existing footage produced by the Sri Lanka Navy, was officially launched on a dedicated Navy website on March 12. Simultaneously, the same material is being featured on the official SLTPB platforms, strengthening the joint effort to market these offerings to the international audiences.
The foundation for this niche market relies heavily on the Sri Lanka Navy’s extensive underwater surveys, which have documented 70 shipwrecks around the island. These wrecks offer a vast historical range, from the 2,000-year-old Godawaya wreck—recognised as the oldest in the Asia-Pacific region—to the World War I vessels off the Colombo coast and the World War II wrecks like HMS Hermes in Batticaloa.
Located at depths of up to 75 meters, these sunken vessels have transformed into thriving artificial reefs. The newly launched digital platform provides the prospective divers with the essential pre-dive intelligence, including the historical context, depth limitations and sea conditions.
Furthermore, the island’s monsoon-driven climate allows for year-round diving operations, with the West Coast accessible from January to April and the East Coast open from May to November.
From an economic perspective, shipwreck diving represents a highly lucrative segment, capable of significantly boosting foreign exchange earnings. While the exact revenue targets for this new segment are still being formalised by the tourism officials, the industry analyses indicate that marine tourism could potentially generate substantial revenue for the local economy.
OSL take:
Sri Lanka’s growing tourism industry would witness further growth with the new tourism concepts being introduced to attract more foreign tourists to the country, especially high-end tourists. The promotion of high-end marine tourism would undoubtedly attract a unique group of tourists to the country. The ongoing promotional campaigns in key tourist source markets, the recognition of Sri Lanka as a must visit tourist destination by many leading international travel publications/programmes and the new concepts being offered to foreign travellers all indicate the continuing growth of Sri Lanka’s tourism industry. However, all this growth has opened a host of business/investment opportunities not only in the tourism industry, but also in related sectors. There are multiple opportunities emerging in the tourism industry that include the development of infrastructure and supplementary infrastructure facilities required to meet the increasing demand of foreign travellers to the country while ensuring the maximum satisfaction for them in their chosen tourism package. The increasing business potential in Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is evident by the expansion programmes undertaken by many businesses engaged in the industry while there’s an increasing interest among international leisure and hospitality brands to enter the industry. Given all these facts, foreign businesses/investors could confidently explore the expanding business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka’s tourism industry and sectors connected to it.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20260319/Z_1 |