No tourist arrivals?

Monday, 22 April 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Cheranka Mendis

Despite two-thirds of April being gone, Sri Lanka Tourism has failed to release data of tourist arrivals for the months of February and March, raising concerns in the industry.

Only January tourism statistics have been published so far, listing arrivals of 97,411 tourists in the country, a 13.4% increase from January last year.

Given the fact that questions over accuracy have been raised with regard to the arrival of one million tourists last year, the delay in February and March data has prompted the leisure industry to wonder whether “data is being cooked”.

When contacted Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) officials told the Daily FT that the data was in the process of being released and could be expected sometime this week. “The data has not been finalised yet. It is being analysed at the moment,” officials added. When questioned on the delay, they expressed that the data had to be processed manually by collecting and going through the Disembarkation Cards handed over to travellers at the airport. “We have also been understaffed this year,” officials noted. “We hope to release the data sometime next month for February and the March stats will be released by the end of this month.”

However, the data of the previous month has always been released by mid next month so far until this year.

Last year, the February figures were released on 15 March, showcasing 83,549 arrivals for the month. The March figures along with Q1 details were published closer to 17 April.

First quarter 2012 showcased 260,525 arrivals in total, a 21% increase over the same period the year before. The end-March performance accounted for 25% of the one million arrivals target last year.