Sri Lanka expects visitor numbers to plunge to 1.9 m this year

Sri Lanka's national tourism organisation SLCB said on Wednesday it expects the number of tourists arriving in the country to fall to 1.9 million in the current year from 2.3 million tourists last year, owing to the series of terrorist attacks in the country in April this year. Significantly, Sri Lanka is a key outbound market for the Indian travellers, particularly for the MICE (meetings, incentive, conferences and exhibitions) segment, accounting for about 10 per cent of the total tourists arrivals.

"We expect the total tourists arrivals in the country at 1.9 million in 2019 as against 2.3 million in-bound tourists in the previous year. The expected decline in tourists arrival will be on account of the events in April this year," said Malkanthi Welikala, manager marketing, Sri Lanka Convention Bureau (SLCB) here on Wednesday. Seven suicide bombers from a local Muslim group, National Thowheed Jamath, attacked three churches and three luxury hotels on April 21, killing 263 people, including 45 foreigners mainly from China, India, the US and Britain.

The Bureau functions under the Sri Lankan Ministry of Tourism Development with the primary objective of promoting Sri Lanka as a venue for international and regional meetings, incentive travel, congress and exhibitions. In 2018, approximately 4.24 lakh Indian tourists visited Sri Lanka, as compared to 3.84 arrivals in 2017, she said.

Of this, as many as 63,733 were MICE arrivals, she said, adding that in 2017 this number stood at 57,694. In the January-September period of 2019, as many as 4.21 lakh Indian visitors had arrived in the country, she added.

"Sri Lanka has been gaining immense popularity in India and has experienced a consistent growth over the period," said Chamari Rodrigo, Consul General, Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Mumbai. Rodrigo also emphasised that the country has "recovered" from the Easter bombing in April and it is "safe" for the tourists.

She further added that cultural and regional similarities between India and Sri Lanka further make it easy to flourish tourism. Welikala said Sri Lankan tourism has organised road- shows across five cities in the the country this year and plans to host similar shows in eight cities in 2020.

"India is the largest and key source market for the development of MICE business to Sri Lanka. We have been extending our presence and our commitment to India markets," she said. "With our current mission we are targeting key markets of India like Mumbai and Pune. With extensive direct airlines connectivity of 121 flights per week from 11 stations in India to Sri Lanka and further complemented by SpiceJet, Indigo, Air India and now Vistara, Sri Lanka becomes an easily accessible destination for MICE from India," she added..