Tourism industry representatives to meet new Minister for first time next week

By Charumini de Silva

Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga will meet the industry champions for the first time on 7 January to discuss the key issues pertaining to the development of the sector and seek suggestions for a quick revival post the Easter Sunday setback and other issues.

Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga

Next week’s meeting was mooted by Tourism Minister Ranatunga, to assure support for the full recovery of the industry post the “crisis year” of 2019 following the Easter Sunday tragedy.

The Tourism Ministry has invited 10 key travel associations for the meeting and expects three to five representatives from each organisations.

Some of the institutions that have been invited for the meeting include The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL), The Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO), The Travel Agents Association of Sri Lanka (TAASL), The Association of Small and Medium Enterprises in Tourism Sri Lanka (ASMET), and Sri Lanka Association of Professional Conference, Exhibition and Event Organisers (SLAPCEO).

Minister Ranatunga has also called for individual meetings with the regional tourism associations including Kandy Hoteliers’ Association, Beruwala Hoteliers’ Association, Kalutara Hoteliers’ Association, Negombo Hoteliers’ Association and Hoteliers of South (HOST) and others on the same day.

Tourist arrivals in 2019 is estimated to be below repeatedly revised targets with foreign exchange earnings following a similar pattern.

As per published data, tourist arrivals in the first 11 months of 2019 was 1.67 million, down 19.6% from the corresponding period of 2018. Provisional estimate is 2019 full year arrivals to be between 1.7 and 1.8 million. 

Sri Lanka originally targeted 2.5 million tourist arrivals for 2019, but SLTDA revised it in August post-Easter Sunday terror attacks, stating that it hoped to get around 2-2.1 million tourists, reflecting a 10% decline over 2018. The SLTDA subsequently revised the annual projection to 1.9 million.

Given the drop in arrivals, the tourism industry will miss its foreign exchange target of $ 3.5 billion in 2019 as well. Deep discounts offered post Easter Sunday tragedy was another contributing factor. In 2018, the industry earned $ 4.3 billion.