Tourism Minister urges industry to expand hotel investments beyond Western Province

Tourism Minister Vijitha Herath

• Commends hoteliers for stepping in to prevent flight disruptions during peak season at BIA 
• Affirms JICA has assured work on Phase II of BIA expansion will commence by end-March 2026
• Says nation branding campaign rollout targeted by end of Q1 2026

By Charumini de Silva

Tourism Minister Vijitha Herath called on hotel operators and tourism-related investors to accelerate development outside the Western Province, stressing that Budget 2026 has allocated substantial funds to improve national infrastructure, including highways and domestic airports, to support regional tourism growth.

Speaking at the Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) Annual General Meeting, the Minister noted that Sri Lanka currently has 59,000 hotel rooms, with 3,000 more expected by the end of 2025, including 1,300 new five-star rooms, of which 340 are already operational. However, he emphasised that the distribution of accommodation remains highly imbalanced.

“In the Western Province alone, there are 11,000 rooms concentrated within one square kilometre. But in key destinations such as Anuradhapura, Bandarawela, Badulla, Ampara and Jaffna, the availability of quality accommodation is extremely limited. I urge the industry to make a deliberate effort to address this need,” Herath said.

To facilitate regional expansion, he said the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) has released land plots in Kuchchaveli, Trincomalee, Bentota, Kalpitiya and Sigiriya under its land bank initiative.

The Minister encouraged both hotel developers and tourism service providers to submit proposals to secure these sites.

“We are also identifying new tourist hotspots and developing facilities around them. Sri Lanka Cricket has announced several projects in Jaffna, and we expect new accommodation investments to follow. Once a destination becomes popular, it naturally grows, just like we saw with Ella,” he said.

Herath commended the private sector for stepping in to prevent flight disruptions during the peak season at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), where limited terminal capacity had threatened cancellations.

“Flight cancellations were imminent, and thanks to the private sector as hoteliers funding for a temporary marquee to ease terminal access, the situation was managed. Otherwise, we would have faced a serious crisis,” he added.

The Minister also confirmed that JICA has assured work on Phase II of the BIA expansion will commence by end-March 2026, providing long-awaited relief to capacity constraints.

The Minister said consultations with THASL, SLAITO and other stakeholders on Sri Lanka’s nation branding campaign are nearing completion. “The revised draft is expected to be finalised soon after financial allocations, with rollout targeted for the end of the first quarter of 2026,” he disclosed.

Herath expressed strong confidence that Sri Lanka will record its highest-ever tourist arrivals of 2.4 million by the end of this year, buoyed by sustained market momentum and a sharp revival in key source markets.

He attributed this momentum to the economic and political stability in the country and said the majority of the travellers had come from European countries which have a lot of high spending visitors. 

“The facts were presented that even though we increased the quantity, the income did not increase proportionally. The fluctuation of the exchange rate and inflation rate has affected this,” he explained.

However, he said that this does not mean that high-end tourists are not coming to Sri Lanka. “If you look at the statistics, the most tourists came from India year-to-date, followed by the UK, Germany and China. Among the top ten countries, there are six European countries. Those visitors are the highest spending travellers,” he said.