(TAN): Sri Lanka Tourism recently announced plans to develop a “city tourism” strategy to position Colombo as a tourism hub in South Asia. The strategy will also focus on developing and enabling Colombo to host high quality international events.
“Keeping in line with the vision of the government to make Colombo a tourism hub, we have taken some proactive steps to make this a reality. Last year, the budget announced some great tax benefits to encourage international luxury brands to make a presence in the Sri Lankan market. We have seen shopping as a key motivator for intra-regional travel and having brands that can pull international visitors is a key component in our strategy. Whilst ensuring that we protect all our local brands, we identified a way to make those international brands more competitive than in other parts of Asia, and thereby provide a compelling reason for regional tourists to visit Colombo,” Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranathunge said.
The core benefits expected via the “City Tourism” strategy includes: direct foreign exchange earnings from artists / events and indirect earnings through ancillary services; increased traffic from the MICE tourism segment; boost in the employment and creative sector; addressing issues of seasonality and visitor dispersal; and the possibilities of promoting Sri Lanka as a 365-day travel destination.
At present, less than 35% of the tourists arriving to Sri Lanka visit Colombo. Colombo now has a 4,000 five-star room inventory, while the completion of Port City is expected to make a further contribution to the five-star room inventory, along with state-of-the-art convention and entertainment facilities.
Under prevailing conditions, whilst global family entertainment has experienced a decline, according to market trends this segment is on its way to recovery and is likely to result in them opting for more entertainment experiences than ever before. With fewer options in the Asian region, Colombo is expected to soon be able to fill this market gap, as the preferred “City Tourism” destination in Asia.
