CHENNAI, November 20, 2012 | The Hindu
Manigandan K.R.
Island nation intends to
have 46,000 rooms by 2016
Even as the Tamils
continue to struggle to rebuild their lives after the decades-long conflict,
which ended three years ago, Sri Lanka seems to be intensifying its efforts to
sell itself as the ideal tourist destination to Indian companies looking to
hold their meetings abroad.
Talking to Indian
journalists, director general of the Tourism Development Authority and the
General Manager of the Sri Lanka Convention Bureau Vipula Wanigasekara claimed,
“Since the conflict ended, tourist arrivals to the country have doubled and
tourism is playing an important role in the rehabilitation of those who have
suffered. Normalcy has returned. At this stage, our strategy has changed from
that of survival to development. We believe that anywhere between 5,00,000 to
8,00,000 Indians will be travelling abroad to attend their company meetings in
the next three years and we will be happy if we have at least 10 per cent of
that MICE segment visiting Sri Lanka.”
MICE, which stands for
Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions or events, is a particular type
of tourism in which large groups come together for a particular purpose
(generally an office meeting or a conference) and it is this segment that Sri
Lanka is particularly interested in at the moment.
“We have 16,000
registered hotels and around 10,000 informal rooms in the country. In 2009, we
had 4,90,000 tourists visiting Sri Lanka. Last year, that figure went up to
8,60,000. This year, we already have had a million people visiting us. Although
we have tourists from other countries such as the U.K., Germany, France,
Singapore and Malaysia, India still remains our number one source of tourists,”
disclosed Mr. Wanigasekara.
The island nation
intends to have 46,000 rooms by the year 2016. Work to reach this target is on
in full swing. An international airport is also being constructed at
Hambantota.
“We are looking at
having convention centres as they attract high spenders like those from the
MICE segment. Tourism has also been lending a big hand to those affected by the
conflict in areas like Jaffna. Quite a number of homes in Jaffna have been
changed into MICE guest houses. These families rent out rooms and make almost
Rs. 4,500 a day. The best part is this is immediate income. Jaffna will be a
big hit. Apart from the homes, three big hotels are to come up in areas
surrounding Jaffna. Not just Jaffna, several hotels will be coming up in other
parts of the country as well… There will be Shangri la and one by the Krish
group from India, which will also be the tallest building on the island,” said
Mr. Wanigasekara, who was quick to point out that although there will be
several structures coming up, the government is intent on ensuring that the
ecosystem isn’t disturbed.
Another segment that is
bound to help tourism revenue inflow is the Ramayana tours. “We had at least
10,000 people coming here as part of the Ramayana tours and we expect those
numbers to increase in the coming years,” he said.
