Accomplishing a year-end target of 750,000 tourist arrivals in October – two months ahead of schedule - has boosted confidence in the industry to reach over 800, 000 in 2011.
Considered a major achievement, the Sri Lanka Tourist Hotels Association President Anura Lokuhetty believes that tourist arrivals will possibly move past the new target of 800, 000 by the end of the year if the current trend continues.
He noted that in achieving this target for the first time a number of interesting trends have also been observed.
In this respect, trends pertaining to the age of tourist arrivals that were in the range of 20-39 years upto 2006 have changed since then where the majority of tourist arrivals are in the age group of 30-49.
In addition, spending per guest per night has also increased upto US$100 while the length of stay of a tourist has also increased in most Western European customers that needs to be sustained, it was pointed out.
In this respect, it was noted that tourist arrivals from the UK have been a cause for concern due to the current recession and its impact on other European markets as well.
Industry analysts however note that the UK market performed well by the end of October last year compared to a 1% increase this year considering the circumstances within which the European market operate at present.
On the other hand, an improvement has been observed in tourist arrivals from the Nordic countries, a trend that was noted to have occurred even prior to the 1982 period, Mr. Lokuhetty said.
This increasing trend is likely to ensure Sri Lanka would be capable of meeting its target this year but it was noted that in order to achieve this there needs to be a concerted effort towards marketing.
Focusing on new markets like China and regional development is imperative; Mr. Lokuhetty said adding that fluency in Mandarin is also required.
Industry analysts point out that Sri Lanka is considered to be doing well and maintaining good growth.
In the meantime, while India is currently coming up with a 44% growth, Chinese visitors to the island have increased by 71.6% and Japan by 44.8% during October this year.
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