Tuesday Sep 01, 2026
Tuesday Sep 01, 2026
Tuesday, 1 September 2026 03:10 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Tourism Deputy Minister Prof. Ruwan Ranasinghe, Tourism Ministry Secretary Aruni Ranaraja, Aninver Development Partners CEO Jose de la Maza, MTI Team Leader Dr. Vipula Wanigasekera
By Charumini de Silva
Sri Lanka is preparing to fundamentally reshape its tourism model, shifting the focus from simply increasing visitor numbers towards extracting greater economic value from each tourist, retaining more visitor spending locally and spreading tourism-led growth beyond established destinations.
The shift will underpin a new National Tourism Strategic Plan for 2026-2031, alongside a five-year Global Destination Communication Campaign Road Map being developed with international and local consultants under the World Bank’s Grant Facility for Project Preparation (GFPP).
Addressing the media, Tourism Deputy Minister Prof. Ruwan Ranasinghe said Sri Lanka had moved beyond the pre-COVID challenge of simply increasing tourist volumes, noting that the country’s ecological sensitivity, limited land area and fragile cultural assets placed a natural ceiling on how much tourism it could sustainably accommodate.
“We need to focus on value. That is the way forward,” he said at the launch of the two consultancies.
The comments represent a significant reframing of tourism policy at a time when Sri Lanka has already surpassed its pre-pandemic arrival benchmark but has yet to achieve a comparable recovery in tourism earnings.
Sri Lanka recorded 2.36 million tourist arrivals in 2025, exceeding the 2018 level, but generated only around $ 3.2 billion in tourism revenue. The consultants noted that the divergence demonstrates that visitor volumes have recovered faster than the value generated by those visitors.
Tourism Ministry Secretary Aruni Ranaraja said the Government’s ambition was to reach $ 8 billion in tourism revenue and 4 million visitors by 2030, but stressed that the central question should be what value each visitor creates for Sri Lanka.
She said this means longer stays, higher spending, better experiences, greater local participation and investment, and more sustainable use of natural and cultural assets.
The strategy is therefore expected to examine not only demand and international markets but also the supply side of tourism, including investment requirements, regulation, institutional arrangements, infrastructure, product development and destination management.
A major focus will be reducing economic leakage from tourism.
World Bank Lead Private Sector Specialist – South Asia Region, Finance Competitiveness and Innovation Global Practice Natasha Kapil outlined the bank’s support to the tourism sector in Sri Lanka through a grant of $ 300,000.
Aninver Development Partners CEO and Tourism Product Development Specialist Jose de la Maza said a larger share of tourist expenditure needed to remain within Sri Lanka rather than flowing to international airlines, overseas suppliers, international hotel groups and other external operators.
“Informality could create another form of leakage from the formal economy,” he said.
The consultants are consequently expected to place SMEs at the centre of the tourism strategy, recognising that tourism creates opportunities for local transport providers, food businesses, accommodation operators, guides, craftspeople, farmers, fishermen and experience providers.
“Tourism is an inherently entrepreneurial industry,” de la Maza said, stressing that entrepreneurship needed to be supported by skills, finance, incentives and an enabling business environment.
The strategy will also seek to develop new tourism products and experiences rather than concentrating visitors around a limited number of established attractions.
De la Maza cited Spain’s development of the Camino de Santiago as an example of how a destination can transform an existing asset into a major tourism product, diversify visitor flows geographically and create opportunities around culture, wellness, nature, food and other experiences.
For Sri Lanka, the consultants see similar potential in linking heritage, wildlife, cuisine, wellness, adventure, marine resources, crafts and community-based experiences.
The proposed approach also represents a move away from developing the country’s nine provinces around a single tourism model.
National Tourism Strategic Planning consultant Dr. Malraj Kiriella, joining via video conference, said each province should develop a distinctive tourism identity based on its own natural, cultural and community assets, while creating stronger links between tourism and agriculture, fisheries, handicrafts, arts, technology and local food production.
“The North and East, for instance, possess substantial cultural, coastal and marine tourism potential, but connectivity and infrastructure constraints remain significant barriers. The objective, should be to create market-ready, high-value experiences rather than simply moving tourists from one location to another,” he said.
This geographic diversification is also expected to help tourism become a stronger instrument of regional development.
Dr. Kiriella said the national strategy has identified four broad economic outcomes: employment creation, skills development, income generation and regional development.
The consultants also intend to focus on increasing the proportion of tourism expenditure retained within local communities and strengthening the capacity of SMEs to participate in tourism value chains.
The strategy will be developed over around 34 weeks, with data collection and analysis forming the initial phase. Spatial and GIS data will also be used to assess tourism resources and development opportunities.
Two major national tourism workshops are planned, with the first expected around mid-October and a second around January to validate emerging recommendations. The national strategy is expected to be completed around February next year.
Running in parallel is the Global Destination Communication Campaign Road Map, led by Skift Inc. of the US and MTI Consulting of Sri Lanka.
The six-month assignment will establish the strategic foundation for the proposed 2027 global promotional campaign, covering priority international markets, positioning, communication, institutional arrangements, market intelligence, budgeting, stakeholder engagement, execution and monitoring.
MTI Team Leader and Project Management Lead Dr. Vipula Wanigasekera said the objective was not simply to produce another strategy document, but to establish a roadmap that could be implemented, measured and continuously improved.
The Government has similarly stressed that the two consultancies should produce tangible outcomes rather than another set of recommendations that remain on paper.
Prof. Ranasinghe said Sri Lanka has already accumulated hundreds of tourism studies, consultations and reports, and the latest exercise must therefore be about implementation and transformation.
“The new strategy consequently faces a more demanding test than setting another arrivals target. The key challenge is no longer simply how many tourists Sri Lanka can attract, but how much sustainable economic value it can generate from each one,” he added.
