Sri Lanka has potential to attract more Indian travellers says experts
The Morning: Sri Lanka’s variety of attractions in a compact destination as well as a new casino set to open in Colombo mid-2025 will provide Indian travellers with more reasons to visit, say Indian tourism officials.
According to Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) President Rajiv Mehra, Sri Lanka is a top choice for Indian travellers due to the destination’s proximity, cultural ties, and diverse attractions.
Mehra added that India has a strong market for gaming tourism, but travellers are limited by domestic options beyond Goa and Sikkim. As such, Sri Lanka, with its proximity and luxury offerings, presents a compelling alternative.
India is Sri Lanka’s biggest source market, accounting for 416,974 visitors out of a total of two million arrivals in 2024, and is more than double of second-placed Russia, which accounted for 201,920 guests.
Amitabh Kant, the man behind India’s highly successful nation branding campaigns, Incredible India and Kerala state’s God’s Own Country, recently told the media that Sri Lanka is a unique tourism product that has yet to be discovered by a vast majority of Indians.
During his visit to Colombo last week, Kant urged Indian travellers to “come and discover the rich heritage, culture and architecture of Sri Lanka.”
Kant, a retired Indian bureaucrat and the former chief executive officer of NITI Aayog, a public policy think tank of the government of India, noted that India has an outbound market of 20 million.
OSL take:
Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is on a steady growth path with increased numbers of tourists arriving in the country. Indian tourists are among the top travelers to Sri Lanka. Local tourism authorities therefore are looking at further attracting Indians to Sri Lanka through several tourism concepts that range from culture and religious tourism to adventure and wellness tourism. The Ramayana Trail promoted to attract Indian tourists to Sri Lanka has managed to ensure a steady flow of Indians to Sri Lanka. The overall expansion of Sri Lanka’s tourism industry has created many business/investment opportunities in the country while the increase in Indian tourists to the country has attracted many Indian businesses/investors, especially in the leisure and hospitality sectors, to explore the expanding opportunities in the local industry. This is also indicative of the overall increase in Sri Lanka’s business potential and the steady increase in Sri Lanka’s tourism revenue. The growth and profits recorded by local businesses engaged in Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is also indicative of the industry’s business and growth potential that could boost the confidence of foreign businesses/investors to in-turn invest in the industry.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20250310/Z_1 |