Sri Lanka's tourist arrivals not Marching in sufficient numbers

244,328 tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka during March 2019 is a worrying sign – especially in light of the promises made to bring in 3 million visitors during 2019. Alas, when one contrasts the slowing growth trajectory, the signs certainly do not point towards achieving this overtly ambitious goal.

• Month-on-month: March 2018 arrivals were 24.1% over the previous year’s month, whilst the 4.7% increase in March 2019 over March 2018, is, mildly put, very concerning.
• 1^st Quarter arrivals: Accumulated 740,600 arrivals in 2019 – up 4.6% over same period in 2018, when compared to the 17.1% increase achieved in 2018 over 2017, is abysmal.
• Tourist Arrivals; Single digit growth since December 2018.

The government is now planning to issue free visas to 36 countries in the off peak period (May – October), with the aim of boosting arrivals by 20% during this period.

1,177,121 tourists visited Sri Lanka last year during the period May – October. Achieving a 20% increase in arrivals over the same period this year due to the free-visa offer, would mean welcoming approximately 1,413,000 visitors to the island. This would result in an accumulated ‘year-to-date’ figure of 2,153,600 tourists by end October.

Lets for a moment assume that the envisaged 20% increase momentum spills over November and December 2019, we can then expect another 538,500 or so tourists. This would mean that a total 2.7 Million tourists would have visited Sri Lanka in 2019. This is perhaps the ‘best case’ scenario.

Other sporting events such as the ICC Cricket World cup 2019 in England & Wales, between 30 May to 14 July and the Rugby World cup 2019 in Japan, from 20 Sept until 02 Nov may stifle visitor numbers. With Presidential elections to be held this year - the situation looks grim. It’s a sad state of affairs when chasing an impossible dream. But it doesn’t have to stay that way!

This writer’s message to the Minister of Tourism and the Chairman of SLTDA / SLTPB is to give the 3 million target a ‘blast of silence’. Re-boot your expectations at this point in time – at a time that is just past the first quarter of the year and one, which provides everyone  the opportunity to look at what has been accomplished so far and to make plans based on reality, not hope.

Report compiled by in2ition

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