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By C.R. de Silva
Since the annual conference of the Pacific Area Tourism Association (PATA) will take place in Negombo during 18-21 May, bringing into the country hundreds of tourism experts, this may be an appropriate time to review the high priority assigned by the Government to tourism development in Sri Lanka, and assess the challenges confronting the plan to attract 2.5 million visitors to the country and increase tourism earnings, being one of the three highest foreign exchange revenue sources, targeted to reach $ 4 billion in 2017. If the conference ends up only offering a soap box for ‘high profile speakers’ on the subject, little will be gained by local industry operators.
To start at the very beginning, in many cases the first impression a foreign tourist gets of the country is from the national airline which may transport him here. Since the airline’s management arrangement with Emirates, which was able to operate SriLankan Airlines efficiently and at a substantial profit, was cancelled in an impulsive fit of illogical personal pique, SriLankan Airlines, though carrying full loads, has been continuously run at a multi-million dollar loss, and has also accumulated a huge foreign debt, which the Government is now obligated to settle, amidst much bigger debt burdens weighing it down. Travelling on Sri Lankan is always not trouble free with departure delays and occasional cancelled flights.
In the rush to increase tourism investment mostly in the form of 5-star and so-called “exclusive” boutique hotels spread out all over the country, the question arises whether the concerned authorities as well as the private sector, have lost sight in distributing and locating these expensive investments, of a well thought out Tourism Infrastructure Master Plan, which seeks to match available supply of tourism accommodations and the location of visitor attractions, to the demand in terms of the affordability of the facilities and interests among the consumer tourist clientele. The issue arises: Is supply matching actual demand?
Current records indicate that the two largest segments of tourist traffic to Sri Lanka are from India and China, and the question arises what class of accommodation they generally seek. A total inflow of tourists to Sri Lanka now in the two million range compares unfavourably with numbers visiting neighbouring countries like Thailand (32 million), Malaysia (26 million), Singapore (16 million) and Viet Nam (10 million). A review should be launched to probe the reasons for this disparity in tourist inflows, since Sri Lanka appears not to have found their formula for attracting tourists in such large numbers, in a now structured industry, which has overtaken casual tourism.
A prominent personality in the tourism industry made the critical observation very recently that about 50% of total foreign tourist arrivals seek accommodations in Air B&B facilities, informal settings like home-stays or unregulated and often unregistered guest houses, which is a far cry from patronising ultra-luxury hotels coming up all over Sri Lanka at exorbitant foreign exchange cost and also phenomenal speed, with six Hilton Hotels now slated to enter the prospective construction pipeline.
Anecdotal evidence also indicates that Sri Lanka is a popular destination of low-cost back-packer tourism, which seeks out the least expensive accommodations whether in Colombo (often in dormitories or rooms costing little per day), beach-side on the south coast or in Arugam Bay, which has hence acquired a seedy look, and specialises in such low cost informality in response to demands of backpacking youth and significant surfer demand. Therefore, one unavoidable conclusion is: a mismatch between 5-star accommodations and popular tourist demands. In addition, group tourism also predominates, which seeks reasonably priced comfortable, clean facilities where the predominant foreign exchange outlay is already paid at the source, with only part of the expenditure trickling down to pay for local services, short-circuiting much needed foreign exchange inflows.
In terms of regional competitiveness, another important question is whether Sri Lanka is pricing itself out of the regional tourism market by building these ultra-luxury and boutique hotels compared to hotel prices in the region, where holidays can be spent in Thailand, Viet Nam or even Bali at less cost.
The technology is available to track tourists who arrive in Sri Lanka and probe, inter alia, why they come here, which age cohort predominates, what is their expenditure pattern, what kind of activities are they seeking, what facilities are they looking for, etc. providing the data needed to plan targeted investments for the class of tourist being attracted and for whom this country is attractive.
Immigration Department’s landing and departure card questionnaire can be imaginatively recast to provide much of the essential consumer or guest data, but analysis of the output has also to be completed in a results-oriented and efficient manner to yield substantive and usable data to enhance Sri Lanka’s tourism potential.
Another facet which is neglected in Sri Lanka is R&D to identify in what direction tourism capital investment should be developed, for example, without just concentrating a whole slew of new 5-star hotels opposite the Galle Face Green, with already several operating at both its ends, supplemented by a new high-rise Financial City, without any regard to the barriers being effectively so constructed to obstruct fresh air from the sea entering crowded middle and working class habitats in the city. If political imperatives take the place of educated attempts at R&D being constructively used, white elephants costing millions of dollars can materialise with adverse effects on the country’s already scary external debt obligations.
R&D may also help to plan and introduce extra refinements like ‘Sound and Light’ shows in sought after venues of historical and cultural importance as in Europe and Egypt, to enhance the value and attractiveness of those historical gems to tourists, of what the country has to offer. Another option to investigate are western style ‘walking tours’ in places like Galle Fort, or selected sites in Anuradhapura or Polonnaruwa. So far, one commentator has pointed out that tourism industry experts have shown ‘limited creativity’ in how to exploit the limited, but wonderful and unique tourism resources that the country possesses.
Along with this positive dimension, planners should also be conscious of the important need to not kill the tourism resource that foreign as well as local tourists come to see and enjoy. One of the six Hilton Hotels in the pipeline is planned for location at Yala wildlife sanctuary, which is already dotted all around its periphery with all manner of mushroom and other hotel accommodations, resulting during times of high tourist occupancy of literally hundreds of packed safari jeeps invading the wildlife park at the same time and creating veritable traffic jams at the watering holes, where animals should be seen; but clearly not while they are exposed to noise and made to breathe vehicle fumes from hundreds of these intruders.
Effective planning aimed at conserving a valuable tourism resource is an absolute pre-requisite, unless the attempt is to unintentionally destroy it for the future. Even today, the bigger animals are few and far between. Yala has ceased to be a safari adventure. It is a pity that political pressure in 2016 interfered with qualified and dedicated management of the responsible Government department being continued beyond a few months.
Likewise, in the Eastern Province, where the main draw is the beach and the calm, shallow seas, Passikudah is now lined with more than one mile of numerous luxury hotels, but the seas side environment is littered with uncleared plastics and debris, which eventually get washed into the sea at high tide and return to the shore, presenting an unsightly and unwanted spectacle, disgusting to most tourists.
A similarly important issue is the maintenance of high and acceptable as well as uniform standards in the hotel industry in terms of highly trained chefs and appropriately educated personnel to cater to guests who have come a long way for a different and long lasting, memorable experience. Does Sri Lanka have suitable personnel to adequately staff these increasing numbers of 5-star and boutique hotels which charge anywhere from the equivalent of $200-400 per night per room? Are we currently operating an adequate number of approved hotel schools turning out specialised staff of unquestionable competence to converse with and relate to foreign tourists and see to their every need? Will tourists enjoy quality levels of cuisine and entertainment they seek, for which they have come a long way?
For example, a well-known Swiss hotel chain has just opened a hotel in Colombo 3 with a supposedly “authentic” French brasserie, where the managing chef is a local who has probably never worked in France, and turns out mediocre fare at high prices! In contrast, the same hotel serves excellent Japanese cuisine by a very experienced Japanese chef, who has worked all over the world, including in Japan’s finest. So, each experience is so variable in Sri Lanka, but foreign tourists have no time like us to experiment and find the best option.
Are hotel managers, tour operators and other professions in the tourism value chain receptive to complaints and culture-wise able to learn from a tourist’s adverse experience and respond helpfully and constructively, so the same tourist will want to come again to the same location? Do we consider that the tourist is always right as in the countries where tourism is booming or take the position that the treatment meted out to him or facility complained about, simply did not come up to the tourists’ (unrealistic?) expectations, and there is nothing doable to improve it for the next occasion?
These issues are raised in the light of actual events experienced by the writer very recently and may be worth narrating, as symbolic of what is very wrong with so-called exclusive, high-priced boutique hotel tourism in this country, and also typical of the resulting frustrations experienced in the light of senior management responsible for such places of hospitality ignoring written representations. The example cited below relates to a much hyped, ultra-expensive boutique hotel at Hunas Falls, located in one of the most idyllic and naturally scenic, heavily wooded, picturesque locations in the Knuckles Range of mountains.
Despite much-hyped upgrading, glaring structural deficiencies at this hotel were immediately obvious, with no elevator to the two upper floors where the bedrooms are located and, therefore, completely inadvisable for the so-called ‘silver haired’ class; polished, potentially (when even slightly wet) slippery wall tiles installed on bathroom floors making them unsafe; no grab bars in the partial bath enclosure, allowing hazardous water outflow; carelessly prepared bedrooms where both table lamps were not working; a locked mini-bar containing only cheap soft drinks; meals of very poor quality and inadequate quantity, amateurishly cooked; only a handful of guests on a weekend during school holidays; a general air of disorganisation leading to the million dollar question: is the hotel running at a steep loss?
In addition, no hotel manager in charge on the spot! The letter to the hotel chain’s Senior Management pointing all this out was forwarded back to the hotel for a vague telephone reaction to the writer. The same chain runs high-priced boutique hotels in Dambulla, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Hikkaduwa and it is interesting to hear readers’ experiences of holidays at those locations, which hopefully may be different, if not better.
The lesson to be learned is that if the tourism industry in Sri Lanka is to develop as envisaged and become a money spinner for the private sector and a bigger foreign exchange earner for the Government, the bottom line should be the overriding conviction that the guest is always right and everything possible should be done to make his investment worth his while and his holiday a lasting and memorable experience. Otherwise, Sri Lanka’s tourism strategy will be found wanting and tourists will continue to flock to Malaysia, Thailand, Viet Nam and Bali, as they do now.
Shangri-La Hambantota Resort and Spa, with a multitude of amenities, reported a first six-month loss of $ 7.9 million, having charged an average $247 a room/night (although visitors today are said to pay substantially much more) generating a low room occupancy rate of 32%. This may be compared with the same Hong Kong hotel chain’s room rates of $132 in Malaysia and $122 in China. Such high room rates of 5-star hotels in Sri Lanka are designed to kill the bird laying the golden egg! Also, did Shangri-La accede to political pressure to locate a 5-star hotel in Hambantota or was it the outcome of an objective, tourist demand market survey which justified the investment?
The foregoing analysis and commentary may help in some minor way to focus the PATA annual meeting’s theme for discussion this week, appropriately titled ‘Disruption, Innovation, Transformation : The Future of Tourism’ – very pertinent aspects of discussion for tourism in Sri Lanka today, which may raise relevant issues for the future of tourism in Sri Lanka, in particular.
(The writer has travelled the world extensively, especially throughout Asia, connected with his professional work at World Bank Headquarters, for three decades).
