Tourism in 2012

Tuesday, 3 January 2012 00:29 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

AS expected, Sri Lanka’s tourism industry made a booming start to the New Year with the news that South Africa’s Sun City is planning to invest a hefty US$ 800 million in a massive project in Katana. This brings the total investment from large-scale foreign hotel projects to nearly US$ 2 billion, with Sheraton, Shangri-la, Moven Pick and even Singapore’s fabled Mustafa’s cashing in on the country’s tourism boom.

2012 began with Sri Lanka scrapping the visa on arrival scheme for 78 countries and charging fees for all visas, except for visitors from Singapore and Maldives. Since the visa fees were downgraded after concerns were expressed by the Indian High Commission, this change is not likely to have a deep effect on tourist numbers and will hopefully encourage more high-spending tourists. According to Central Bank data, the per capita income per tourist in still ending towards US$ 100 per day and it is hoped that 2012 is the year in which this situation will improve.

Sri Lanka is also getting better publicity. Britain’s Condé Nast Traveller has nominated Sri Lanka as one of the top five destinations to watch in 2012, despite a citizen of that country being killed in Tangalle. The travel experts of the magazine have predicted that Sri Lanka will be among the hottest new holiday destinations for travellers in the coming year.

Unveiling the list of destinations, the magazine reveals that “one of the great joys of travel is the feeling you’ve discovered somewhere special, somewhere that’s all yours, for the first time – before the developers move in and the crowds descend. It could be a new and unexplored region, like the Arctic Circle, or an entire country that has been off-limits to tourists for political reasons, such as Sri Lanka and Burma.” Sri Lanka has been placed third in the list of destinations ahead of Britain, Australia and Abu-Dhabi. National Geographic also picked up on Sri Lanka.

This achievement is certainly a boost for tourism, which has just recorded the highest-ever arrivals to the country this year and is targeting 2.5 million tourists by 2016. The Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) could also be the first step to monitoring tourism on several fronts. For example, it can actually calculate how many foreign nationals arrive in Sri Lanka as tourists, which would iron out statistical controversies over the counting of all visitors as tourists.

Another aspect is that tourists can be interviewed on what their experience in Sri Lanka has been and what they would like to see so that the industry can continue to evolve its product. So far, the main recommendations from travel magazines are because Sri Lanka is largely a “new destination” on the world map, but what will happen once that fades? These are the questions that will have to be dealt with, along with the need to environmentally sustain the industry.

The ETA system can perhaps also track criminal offenders and protect vulnerable groups of Sri Lanka such as children by monitoring arrivals more vigilantly. Rooting out people who come to work under the guise of tourists must also be dissuaded and this was one of the main reasons that the ETA was set up in the first place.

Opportunities also present challenges and 2012 will have plenty of both for tourism.