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Tuesday, 18 June 2019 00:12 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Charumini de Silva
Sri Lanka will make a fresh push to woo Chinese tourists post-Easter Sunday terror attacks by putting up a major promotional initiative at the biggest industry events in Beijing.
The Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB), along with local travels agents, hotels and service providers will participate at the 2019 edition of Beijing International Travel Expo (BITE), which kicks off today at the China National Convention Centre.
BITE, the largest international travel exhibition in China which will be held till 20 June, is an important exchange and trade platform for promoting the global tourism resources and products and stimulating tourism consumption.
It features comprehensive multi-field exhibition projects such as tourism investment and finance, tourism real estate, tourism commodities, special towns, tourism, intelligent tourism, sports tourism, medical tourism, outdoor tourism, RV camping tourism and much more.
The Sri Lankan pavilion at the BITE will be declared open by Tourism Development Minister John Amaratunga along with other officials from the Ministry and SLTPB today.
“Around 15 local travel agents, hotels and service providers will participate at the three-day expo in Beijing to have business to business (B2B) meetings with their counterparts representing over 100 countries in the world,” SLTPB Chairman Kishu Gomes told the Daily FT.
He said they hope to focus on business meetings, exclusive media interviews and destination promotion presentations during the first two days of the event and engage with the consumers on the final day.
“SLTPB is keen to make maximum out of this opportunity to build the image of Sri Lanka and engage with a large segment of travel stakeholders,” Gomes added.
SLTPB also held a special press conference yesterdaywhere the Minster and SLTPB Chairman spoke to over 60 journalists and 40 travel industry personnel, focused on the latest security situation, travel advisories and promotions that are being carried out by Sri Lanka Tourism to bolster the tourism industry in the country.
Amaratunga believes that the Government will not extend the Emergency Law after 21 June, which will help China to further relax its adverse travel advisories imposed on Sri Lanka.
China is Sri Lanka’s second largest source market which drew 265,965 tourists last year. China has over 150 million outbound tourists, increasing 14% year-on-year.
“Although many criticise that Chinese travellers are not good spenders, it is not so. Looking at the statistics we found that an average Chinese tourist spends $1,000 per visit. I think we should focus on attracting more travellers from China going forward,” he said.
According to Gomes, during the first four months Sri Lanka has attracted over 92,000 Chinese travellers, but due to the unfortunate Easter Sunday terror attack that shook the entire industry, the numbers have now plunged sharply.
“I am confident that we will be able to attract Chinese travellers close to last year’s numbers,” Gomes stressed.
He was optimistic that Sri Lanka will bounce back faster with steps taken, such as participating in events like BITE that provides a platform to promote the destination more profoundly.
With national carrier SriLankan Airlines flying directly to China and two Chinese airlines flying to Colombo from seven destinations, SLTPB believes it will help boost Sri Lanka’s popularity among Chinese travellers.
Gomes also said there is a lot of scope to attract Buddhist travellers, a religion followed by 245 million people in China. In addition, he suggested Sri Lanka should focus on strengthening its shopping portfolio. “Of the total spending of Chinese travellers, 25% goes for shopping. Sri Lanka still doesn’t have as many Chinese travellers spending on that category, as much of their spending are on accommodation, food and cultural sites. We need to strengthen our shopping portfolio,” he pointed out.
