SLAITO Past President vouches for statistics; says new Tourism Minister misled

By Shehana Dain

A member of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau this week defended the accuracy of arrival statistics in response to remarks made by newly-appointed Tourism and Christian Affairs Minister John Amaratunga.

Soon after his appointment, Minister Amaratunga alleged that tourism arrival numbers were inaccurate.

He opined that even transit passengers who changed flights in Colombo to proceed to the Maldives and Indian destinations were being counted as tourists visiting Sri Lanka. Amaratunga further stated that overseas workers who were employed in foreign-funded construction projects were wrongly categorised as well. 



The Minister later promised to take necessary steps to publish accurate tourist arrival figures on par with international norms.

However, Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators Past President and Board member of the Tourism Promotion Bureau Mahen Kariyawasan told the Daily FT that he stood by the tourism arrival numbers.

According to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority tourist arrivals in the first eight months have grown by 17% to 1.17 million.

Kariyawasan stressed that he was confident tourist arrival figures depicted an accurate picture as they were in accordance with international standards.

“Unfortunately the Minister has been misled because the arrival statistics to my knowledge are based on the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) method of accounting for tourists. Our statistics come directly from the immigration authorities,”Kariyawasan pointed out.

He explained that the confusion regarding tourist arrivals and earnings had arisen due to the informal sector in the industry. This had caused vital information to be unaccounted for and had created a vacuum in tourism-related earnings as well. 

Kariyawasan also commended the Minister’s interest in taking appropriate policy changes in order to take the informal sector to the formal sector.

“A recent study has shown that nearly 60% of the tourists in Sri Lanka are going through the informal sector. There’s is a significant number of tourists coming to the country who stay in guest houses and home stay programs. If you go to a website like Agoda there are like 3,600 accommodation providers. If you go through the SLTDA-approved list there are only 1,600 providers.  So you can see there’s a vast difference,” Kariyawasan added.

He further stated that with the appointment of the new Minister, industry stakeholders were expecting policy changes.

“In the area of internal transportation, the average tourist spends about eight hours travelling in a vehicle. So we need better vehicles for us to enhance our services. If the Government can give us tax reductions on imported vehicles that will be an added benefit for us,” Kariyawasan noted.

He added that the Government should primarily focus on the HR inefficiencies in the industry and bring forward proposals to develop professionals in their respective sectors.