Could you give our readers some background information on the Tourist Board, its main activities and what has been the development of tourism in the past few years?
Sri Lanka's Tourism started in the 1960s. It was in the 1950's that the steamboats began coming into Sri Lanka. Thereafter, the Sri Lanka Tourism Board was set up in 1966. The first tourism master plan was in 1967. In the early master plan it was stipulated that no resort or hotel should be higher than a coconut tree. This helped us develop a good scale for beach resorts. As a result you don't find any high-rise buildings on our beaches. In 1967 we also had the planned resorts of Bentota, Koggala and also the recommendations for Trincomalee but the latter didn't come about. We did have a planned approach at the very early stages.
In 1982 we had a very healthy industry with 407,000 tourists coming but in 1983 the conflict began. Through the rest of the 80s we went down hill to the 250,000 mark. In the 1990s we again picked up and in 1999 we did an all time high of a 435,000 tourist with an average duration of stay of 10.2. In the year 2000 we had a small dip as it was election year in Sri Lanka with 404,000 tourists and an earning of around USD254 million. At present our major markets are from Europe and over 60% from Western Europe. We are fairly dependant on package tours and in most instances the all inclusive tour. This is because the demand is limited due to the conflict and the negative image projected during the past 18 years. Right now things are looking up and we have begun to look beyond the conflict to the good times ahead. We know that tourism can also make a contribution to seeking a solution to the conflict and we are very optimistic about it. What is important right now is to restructure and reposition our industry. We were also known in the past as a beach destination. We have much more than beaches to offer. Our present approach is beyond beaches and into nature cultured adventure. Eco tourism we believe is more value based. Ayurveda herbal treatment is another area that we are concentrating on.
But, there are other projects in the pipeline as well. Adventure travel, nature based travel, and cultural sights. We have 7 world heritage sights in Sri Lanka of which the virgin forests in Singharaja, and Sigiriya are two of them. We believe that tourism should benefit communities and not only the tour operators. We are restructuring our industry to accommodate more private sector initiatives. We plan to set up a joint venture company between the private sector and the government in the near future, which will be called the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau. This would drive our initiatives; also this will produce funds for our promotional needs. I will like to hand over all our activities to the private sector in a couple of year's time. In terms of the industry we are also strengthening our industry association structure so that it can be developed to accommodate codes of ethics, alliances, partnerships and common IT platforms to bring everyone together in order to reduce costs. The whole idea of tourism is to bring everyone - all the stakeholders, the taxi drivers, the architects, musicians and artists, all under the Sri Lanka Tourism umbrella where the Tourist Board is only a catalyst to bringing everyone together so they can work together.
You mentioned earlier that tourism is playing a role in solving the current conflict. Can you elaborate more on this?
We believe that tourism can create positive vibes and this would result in positive actions, like the betterment of the stock markets performance. It is the Lord Buddha who gave this management lesson and I quote a stanza "if you think positive what you reap will be positive and if you think negative what you reap will be negative. Like the Chariot which is followed by the wheel or like your shadow which follows you everywhere you go". We believe that if we live for a positive future we could be catalytic in change and a major contributor to the solution of the problem rather than being the problem ourselves. We feel the need to look beyond the problem.
What are the main attractions in Sri Lanka at the moment and moreover, when looking into the future once the conflict is over, what would be the new attractions?
If you were looking for an icon for Sri Lanka, it would be Sigiriya. This is a marvel of one man's passion, who built it into a beautiful city, a work of art, and reflects the grandeur of our heritage. Unfortunately it is the beaches which have got a lot of prominence because of the western winter. We also have a lot of bio-diversity, endemic, birds, plants, and butterflies. For Eco tourism we are in the process of preparing the guidelines in order to establish standards and likewise for Ayurveda herbal medicinal treatments. We are very aware that today's customer is very discerning especially in the European union regulations as you could be sued if you do not deliver on your promise. Therefore we intend to do a good service, good products offered to the tourists.
Talking of your promotional activities, you mentioned that about fifty-percent of your current visitors come from Western Europe. Are you also now targeting the South Asian and Asian markets?
The largest markets for the future outbound travel are India, which has a million millionaires and a few hundred million upper middle-class citizens with high purchasing power that makes it a very good market. Also the family market travel is very strong. For e.g. Indians are the highest spenders in Singapore. We also have a common heritage which could be shared. The other is China, which is very upcoming and outbound market. We will be looking at other areas such as the Far East - Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Hongkong, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan which are very strong markets as well. The Western markets are mostly saturated, as "all inclusive" packages don't bring much yield. Today you have to attack market segments as you can go beyond geographical boundaries and reach them on Internet. We will therefore be concentrating on market segments as Golf, Ayurveda, and offer diabetics herbal treatments.
| In terms of promotion, you are aware that there is a lot of negative publicity from the outside world. To what extent do you actually counter this problem?
We tell the truth to the media as I believe it could win in the end. The truth is that we have a war, which has been going on in the north for the past 18 years and in some parts of the East. However, the reality of the perception is that Colombo and other tourist areas are quite safe. The fact is that we are relatively safe for tourism operations and no tourist have ever been targeted. The reality of course is that we do have a war, which is 11 hours away from Colombo, and that we do have a problem of terrorism but fortunately we have been able to operate a reasonable tourist trade. The travel industry and the travel personnel already understands this and in spite of the war, has been supporting us for the past 18 years. The problem is with the customer and we need millions of dollars to change that perception. We use creative ways of reaching out to customers. We rely on media fan tours, other people's testimonials, which is our strategy.
Given all the promotional work that is being currently done by the Tourist Board, and hoping for peace in the near future, where do you see the tourism sector in the next couple of years, and what role would you play in the economy?
We are presently the number 4 foreign exchange earner in the country and we hope to be number 1, which can be easily achieved. We have very attractive hotels but we have to bring in a higher yield. We need to develop niche areas as the market is moving away from mass to segments and people are looking for experiences and not just a holiday. They like to explore and experience the country. We have an advantage as most people speak English. Moreover, creativity is in abundance, and there is a lot of hope. We don't want to grow very big but are looking for reasonable numbers of tourists with high yield capacities.
Our readers are top management people who are interested in the profiles of other top leaders. Could you tell us something about yourself and your background as you are a very experienced in this industry, furthermore, what would be your final message to our readers?
I started life as a University teacher and taught economics for 8 years. In the meantime I went to the US and studied at the East West Centre in Hawaii and obtained my Masters in Courses own Management and returned to Sri Lanka and set up the Courses own management in Sri Lanka. I moved on to tourism via the environment route and joined the Tourist Board in the early 1980s as Director of Research and International Relations and obtained some marketing qualification. I then moved to the Board of investments for a year as the Senior Manager Promotions. I then took on a challenging job as a General Manager of an advertising company for a period of 4 years. I then joined the Open University of Sri Lanka as the Director of Education Technology. I produced videos; audio and texts of distance teaching. I was then offered a job in Singapore by the Pacific Asian Travel Association and went as Director and within two years was promoted as Vice President for Asia covering from Japan to Pakistan for 6 years. After leaving PATA , I was employed by the UNDP as Chief Technical Advisor on a project called Partnership for quality Tourism in Nepal and lived here for 1-˝ years and helped set up the Nepal Tourism Board and also developed 2 community projects benefiting tourism. I came back to Singapore where I lived for the past 10 years, as I am a permanent resident of Singapore as well. The Singapore Tourism Board offered me a job to work as the Chief Executive of the National Travel Agents Association of Singapore for 2 years. I came back and started my own consultancy company called "options asia.com" and "TNT Management options Asia". I did an assignment for China for World Tourism Organization and did the marketing strategy for Shangri-La province and came back to Sri Lanka and working in this position since January this year.
My final message to the readers is that Sri Lanka is an exotic destination waiting to blossom, it's a great investment and would like to see very serious long-term investors and thinkers. We are very interested in developing a viable sustainable industry in Sri Lanka. We have the right concepts and the vision, and our vision is to be the foremost destination in Asia by the end of this decade. Our mission for tourism in Sri Lanka is to delight our customers and to build their loyalty to this destination.
NOTE: World Investment News Ltd cannot be made responsible for the content of unedited transcriptions.
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