Western European travellers continue to dominate the Sri Lanka tourism scene as they spend more time while visiting compared to Asians in half a decade.
Visitors from neighbouring India have contributed to the high growth in the tourist arrivals into Sri Lanka from 104,390 in 2004 to 126, 882 last year, according to official Sri Lanka Tourism figures.
However, the average duration of stay is 8.1 in 2007 that has held steady until 2009 when it dropped slightly to 7.9.
In comparison to UK travellers, on average the duration of stay is at 11.5 in 2007 that slipped to 10.5 in 2008 and later stabilized at 10.2 in 2009.
UK travellers totalled 107, 042 in 2004, then dropped over the years to even 81, 682 in 2009 but picked up last year to 105, 496 arrivals.
Germans also spend on average 10.9 days in 2008 and 10.2 in 2009 whereas its arrivals had dropped from 58, 932 in 2004 to 29, 664 in 2009 but last year rose to 45, 727.
In fact, Western European travellers would continue to spend more nights in Colombo compared to their Indian counterparts.
However, the industry believes this is mainly due to long haul travel prompting such visitors to stay for long and noted, there is a need to increase their concentration in the Indian market to tap on large arrivals.
In this respect, Tourist Hoteliers Association of Sri Lanka President Anura Lokuhetty speaking with the Business Times said Sri Lanka has to definitely concentrate on Indian customers.
He noted that should they market the destination adequately and show all cultural sites in the country it is possible the Indian traveller might stay for a longer time frame.
A clear indicator in these developments over the years is that the Western European travellers have dropped in their numbers significantly although 2010 has indicated signs of the figures picking up.
The average number of nights over the years continues to remain the same. This is evident in 2004 when Western European travellers would spend on average 11.5 nights while Asia amounted to on average 7.5 nights compared to 7.8 nights in 2009.
The top 10 source markets for 2008 indicated India as number one followed by the UK, Maldives, Germany, Australia, Russia, USA, Netherlands, France and Canada. But in 2009 the composition changed with France and Russia changing places before and after the US, respectively and Canada moving out of the picture giving way to Japan whose arrivals grabbed a 2.3% share of the markets.
Note: No data of room nights for 2010 was available. |
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