Monday Jan 05, 2026
Monday Jan 05, 2026
Monday, 5 January 2026 01:54 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
2025’s milestone tourist Felix Beslin Pereira (second from right) along with Deputy Tourism Minister Prof. Ruwan Ranasinghe and Sri Lanka Tourism Chairman Buddhika Hewawasam cut a special cake on arrival at the Bandaranaike International Airport last week where he was accorded a ceremonial welcome on account of Sri Lanka achieving highest ever tourist arrivals in a year
- Pic by Lasantha Kumara
While local operators debate blocking platforms like PickMe, tourists consistently say they prefer regulated systems with fixed pricing and traceable drivers
On 29 December 2025, Sri Lanka crossed a symbolic threshold. For the first time in its history, the country recorded its highest ever tourist arrivals in a calendar year, with the milestone visitor being an Indian traveller arriving on a Sri Lankan airlines flight. It was genuinely good news, a clear sign that tourism has become one of the pillars of our economic recovery and that we have surpassed the previous record year of 2018.
The rebound is all the more remarkable given what the industry has weathered in recent years from the Easter attacks and pandemic shutdowns to the economic crisis and even the disruptions caused by Cyclone Ditwah. The sector has shown resilience. But resilience alone is not a strategy.
Why record numbers are not enough
Arrivals alone do not build a tourism economy. Value does; how long people stay, how much they spend, how widely that spending spreads, and whether they come back.
That milestone therefore prompted a more forward-looking reflection. Now that we have reached this point, how should we take tourism to the next level? How do we build on momentum while shifting the conversation firmly towards quality over quantity?
Once guests feel unsafe, they retreat indoors, cancel casual dining and avoid exploration. That is lost revenue for entire communities
Marketing 101
One of the first lessons ever learnt in marketing was simple; stop guessing and start listening. If you want to improve your product or service, listen carefully to what your customers are actually saying about it. Long immigration queues and confusing processes undo weeks of marketing in a single afternoon. In tourism, when volume rises but yield stagnates, the solution is not louder advertising but sharper listening.
Listening before prescribing
This article is the first part of a two-part reflection on where Sri Lankan tourism goes from here. In Part 1, I look at what our visitors are telling us. In Part 2, I will turn to what the industry itself has been saying for years – the structural bottlenecks, governance gaps and policy failures that cause fixes to stall even when the answers are already known.
Tourism today sits alongside worker remittances as one of Sri Lanka’s largest sources of foreign exchange. It creates jobs at scale, supports rural communities and injects hard currency directly into households. Yet the data already hints at a warning sign. In 2018 the average tourist stayed about 10.8 nights, by 2023–24 this had fallen to roughly 8.4–8.6 nights according to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) and Central Bank. More visitors, shorter stays, a textbook case of diminishing returns.
Over several months I deliberately trawled through TripAdvisor threads, Reddit forums, Instagram reels and Facebook travel groups, and then cross-checked what I was seeing by walking the streets of Ella, Mirissa, Weligama and Arugam Bay and talking to travellers face to face.
The complaints below are ranked by frequency, emotional intensity and commercial impact.
The top 10 complaints and how they quietly drain value are below.
Before listing them, it is worth noting that not everything is broken. The development of products like the Pekoe Trail shows what is possible when experiential product design is taken seriously. These bright spots only underline how much value is being lost elsewhere.
Too many tourist sites remain unexplained. Guests walk through history without understanding it or are fed inaccurate stories by unofficial guides
1. Harassment, touting and overcharging
This is not about isolated incidents. It is about behaviour that forces visitors into defensive mode. Several solo female travellers told me that what unsettled them most was persistent unwanted attention. A recent viral video of a tuk-tuk driver exposing himself to a woman travelling alone spread globally within hours. Once guests feel unsafe, they retreat indoors, cancel casual dining and avoid exploration. That is lost revenue for entire communities.
2. Visa extension frustration
Despite assurances that visa extensions can be handled online, many visitors still lose a full day travelling to Battaramulla and paying significant fees simply to stay longer. Long-stay travellers are our highest-yield segment. When the extension process feels punitive, they quietly shorten trips or choose another country next time.
3. Overcrowding at signature attractions
Waterfalls where nobody can hear the water. Viewpoints reduced to selfie queues. When destinations feel congested, travellers compress itineraries. The three-night stay becomes a rushed afternoon. SLTDA visitor surveys repeatedly flag overcrowding as a top dissatisfaction factor, closely correlated with shortened stays.
4. Yala safari congestion
A leopard sighting should feel rare. Instead it often feels like a traffic jam. Guests leave not complaining about wildlife, but about chaos and that is the story they take home.
5. Airport arrival chaos
First and last impressions matter. Long immigration queues and confusing processes undo weeks of marketing in a single afternoon. Even if Terminal 2 construction begins in mid-2026, most official timelines point to late-2028 before meaningful relief arrives. Until then, operational reform is critical.
6. Beach litter and hygiene
Visitors do not photograph dirty beaches. They simply do not return. A neglected beach signals that a destination has stopped caring about itself.
7. Unregulated scooter and tuk-tuk hire
While local operators debate blocking platforms like PickMe, tourists consistently say they prefer regulated systems with fixed pricing and traceable drivers. Freedom without structure creates anxiety and anxiety kills spending.
8. Lack of toilets and public facilities
Rarely written but constantly mentioned. When travellers plan entire days around bathroom access, the destination has failed at a basic level.
9. Poor signage and interpretation
Too many sites remain unexplained. Guests walk through history without understanding it or are fed inaccurate stories by unofficial guides. The Pekoe Trail proves that interpretation converts sightseeing into storytelling.
10. Hidden fees and fake charges
“I loved Sri Lanka,” one traveller told me, “but I never knew what anything was really supposed to cost.” Once that distrust sets in, visitors simply stop buying.
In tourism, when volume rises but yield stagnates, the solution is not louder advertising but sharper listening
And then there is the long tail
Beyond these lie animal-welfare concerns, weak Wi-Fi, fragmented transport information and inconsistent service standards. Indian family travellers frequently flag beach congestion and harassment; Chinese group travellers are far more vocal about poor connectivity and signage. Each irritation alone may seem manageable. Together, they define how a destination feels.
Long immigration queues and confusing processes undo weeks of marketing in a single afternoon. When destinations feel congested, travellers compress itineraries
Why this is really about value, not volume
Every issue above quietly erodes yield. A guest who feels harassed eats inside. A guest stuck in queues shortens stays. A guest who distrusts pricing, books nothing impulsively.
If friction trims even one day off the average stay, Sri Lanka loses an entire day of meals, transport, guides, entry fees and tips per visitor. In the age of social media, one angry reel from a Yala traffic jam can now reach millions within days and live online forever. We are counting tourists, not measuring what they leave behind.
In Part 2, I will unpack why Sri Lanka keeps diagnosing the same problems year after year, yet remains stuck in pilot projects and committee reports.
(The author is a business leader specialising in hospitality, tourism, and investment. As Chairman and CEO of private companies and a board member of three publicly listed companies, he is actively engaged in hotel development and asset management in Sri Lanka. He can be contacted at [email protected])
