Sri Lanka Tourism to focus on exploiting full potential of Chinese tourists market
Sri Lanka’s Ambassador designate to China, Dr. Palitha Kohona has reportedly said that Sri Lankan tourism sector has failed to attract travelers from the largest tourism destination in the world, China.
Dr. Kohona has made this observation recently while addressing a seminar on Opportunities in China for Sri Lanka organized by Director, Federation of Chamber of Commerce, (FCCISL) and Managing Director- Sripalie Construction, Ruwan De Silva and Senior Vice President FCCISL, Keerthi Gunaratne in Colombo on Tuesday.
He has noted that on average over 169 million Chinese tourists travel out (prior to Covid19 pandemic) from China each year and Sri Lanka has only succeeded in getting on average 265,000 arrivals from China while Thailand gets around 26 million Chinese arrivals.
According to Dr. Kohona, the local travel sector must look at providing a better ‘Chinese oriented service’ for Chinese tourists in Sri Lanka.
The Daily News has reported Dr. Kohona as saying that there were several reports that spice gardens and gem shops are not providing a good service especially to Chinese tourists and this aspect should be investigated. “A Sri Lankan gem company has also sold fake Sri Lankan gems at the Shanghai Expo and these tarnish the good image of Sri Lanka.”
There are several large Chinese tourism based foreign direct investments (FDIs) going to several other Asian countries but Sri Lanka has failed to attract them as well.
He has explained that the main reason for this is that a Chinese language focused digital marketing campaign was not professionally launched in China by the Sri Lankan travel sector. “Chinese are crazy web surfers and Sri Lanka must focus on this point in the future.”
Dr. Kohona has further noted that in addition, there is a large and growing middle class with high spending power who are keen on travel and this segment should be targeted in the future.
OSL take:
Sri Lanka’s tourism industry was one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the country until the global Covid 19 pandemic resulted in the closure of borders of many countries. However, Sri Lanka’s tourism industry shows signs of a quick return to normalcy with the country being listed as a must visit destination by several leading global travel publications. Also, Sri Lanka has been certified as a safe and hygienic destination, placing the island at the top of tourist destinations when the industry restarts operations. Given the close ties between Sri Lanka and China and the prominence given by the latter to the island in its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Chinese tourists to Sri Lanka will see an increase. Foreign businesses/investors could confidently explore business opportunities Sri Lanka’s tourism industry.
Article Code : | VBS/AT/13112020/Z_8 |