The number of inbound tourists from China is set toexceed the 100,000 target set for this year, powered by record breaking arrivals in July to coincide with the Esala Maha Perahera, due to mega promotions conducted by the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau. “We used to participate at only travel fairs and arrange media and agent familiarization tours during the past as main activities for China.
However in 2013 and 2014, we conducted mega promotional campaigns in Beijing and Shanghai,” Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Director of Marketing Madhubani Perera spoke of the reasons for the recent success.
According to statistics published by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, the number of arrivals from China this year till July stood at 67,408, compared to the 27,599 for the same period last year, showing a mammoth 144.2 percent increase, surpassing 54,288 total number of arrivals for the whole of last year.
This July, 15,178 tourists arrived from China recording a 172.2 per cent increase year-on-year compared to 5,576 arrivals in July last year, and 8,345 arrivals in June. Other than the Kandy Pageant, the numbers were also bolstered by the establishment of a charter flight service. “From July 2014 onwards, a charter flight is in operation every Tuesday with 160 passengers from Chongqing, and furthermore during the Kandy Perahera season, the numbers have also increased,” Perera noted.
She also expressed her belief that the numbers in October would surpass the 10,000 arrivals mark due to 2nd semi-annual Golden Week Holiday in China, falling on the first week of October following the celebrations of their National Day on the 1st of the month.
The first Golden Week Holiday which occurred during the week of January 31st to February 6th also saw tourist arrivals of over 10,000 for both months from China, validating her theory.
Bus advertising campaigns are currently being conducted in 4 major cities in China, while mega promotions are also planned to be carried out in Guangzhou and Chengdu next year along with a road show in Xiamen to coincide with the annual Guangzhou International Travel Fair in March.
According to Perera, who spoke at the Fujian Tourism Promotion Week launch recently, 15,000 Sri Lankans travel to China annually, and speaking from experience, urged more Sri Lankans to travel to China as well. Bilateral tourism has been promoted since Sri Lanka broke through to the Chinese market with an approved destination status in 2002, and Perera hopes the burgeoning tourism would lead to further development of bilateral business partnerships.
Meanwhile, the highest number of tourist arrivals in July was claimed by India with 19,277 followed by the UK with 16, 424, while the total for the month stood at 133,971.
The total number of arrivals to the island this year through July was recorded at 861,325; lagging slightly below on average on the way to a 1.5 million tourists target set by the authorities.
However, the upcoming peak season coinciding with the European winter is set to see the numbers through, with the Western European region contributing the dominant share of arrivals so far with 278,667 with the UK comprising 82,815 of it.
Sri Lanka Travel Feneteko