Sri Lanka is the top travel destination in Asia in 2017
Sri Lanka has won the title as the top travel destination in Asia in 2017, at the World Travel Awards Asia & Australasia 2017 held in Shanghai. Sri Lanka also won the top position as the Asia’s Leading Adventure Tourism Destination 2017 as well alongside the top travel destination title. This award was accompanied with awards to Asia’s Leading Design Hotel 2017 which went to Casa Colombo, Sri Lanka and Asia’s Leading Cultural Airline 2017 which went to Sri Lankan Airlines.
The host of awards recognizes Sri Lanka as an increasingly influential stakeholder in the Asian tourism industry and gives a significant boost to governments’ vision to bring in 4.5 million tourists to Sri Lanka by the year 2020.
The award for the top travel destination is awarded based on a country’s product and service range and this award is now testament to the diversity on offer for tourists in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan adventure tourism is also highly regarded as it is able to cater to many areas such as surfing, diving, hikes, rafting and even climbing for tourists among many other attractions.
The awards are determined by an online voting processes attended by Industry experts and the host of awards confirms Sri Lanka’s popularity in the global arena. Sri Lanka, is moving ahead with plans to expand tourism with an objective to function as a tourist hub and these awards will have the potential to act as incentive to many tourists to visit Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority is engaging in wide scale projects to uplift the Tourist Industry under the government mandate with the primary focus on increasing the capacity of hotel rooms to 80,000 and expanding to many locations around the country. This approach has seen Sri Lankan government trying to diversify the tourist attractions around the country which will provide them access to a much larger and potentially a higher spending market than the one it currently has access to.
OSL TAKE
The quadruple of awards is a signal Sri Lankan Tourism industry is gaining momentum in global markets and this bodes well for the government initiative to convert Sri Lanka into Tourism and travel hub. Increased tourist demand is likely in particular as the awards will be a selling point for potential tourists who would be intrigued to visit the island nation.
As well as the number of awards the areas in which the awards have been won is of paramount importance as they represent diverse range which establishes a solid presence for Sri Lanka moving forward. Sri Lanka’s ability to both be the leading destination for travel and adventure tourism amongst all countries in Asia is a significant milestone as Sri Lanka has to compete with much stronger tourist numbers spread across much more established countries across the region.
The most important benefit of the awards will be in lifting investor confidence that Sri Lanka has the potential to emerge and sustain its status as a top travel destination in the region. This will allow more investors to invest in the Sri Lankan tourism industry and to push its already high standards even higher.
As the government plans are put into motion more awards and milestones such as these awards are likely, which will increase the allure of the Island nation to potential tourist contributing to high levels of visitors. Therefore, any investor willing to enter the Tourism industry of Sri Lanka can do so with firm evidence pointing to massive growth in the industry.
Article Code : | VBS/AT/13062017/Z_3 |