Sri Lanka Tourism Booms After End of War .

http://www.news.lk/home/18804-sri-lanka-tourism-booms-after-end-of-war-


Sri Lanka Tourism Booms After End of War
Sunday, 28 August 2011 06:48

Sri Lanka, after a more than two years
after the end of 30-year civil war,the tourism in the island nation is now on track to recovery with several development projects under way. Despite the global financial downturn and ensuing ups and downs, the underperforming tourism industry in Sri Lanka has shown strong signs of pickup over the last two years.
The Sri Lankan government has taken steps to boost its tourism industry by offering concessions and special deals for tourism-related projects which include the construction of new five-star hotels and luxurious resorts in several parts of the country.
Fast gaining popularity as a hot tourist destination since the end of the war in May 2009, Sri Lanka has seen arrivals rise every month ever since.
Declaring 2011 as "Visit Sri Lanka Year", the government led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa gave the country a target of attracting 2.5 million tourists and earning US$2.5 billion annually by 2016.
According to the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, during the first six months of 2011, more than 450,000 tourists visited the island, up 36.1 per cent year on year.
"We are very happy with the figures, which are continuing to rise each year, and the industry has really improved. We are currently conducting many promotional activities in several parts of the world to promote our rich culture, heritage and natural beauty," the bureau's managing director Rumy Jauffer said.
India has been one of Sri Lanka's biggest tourist sources, with a record number of Indians visiting the island since the end of the war. Local authorities are also trying to attract tourists from the Western and European markets as well as Asian nations such as China.
Jauffer has told Xinhua that 10,112 Chinese visited Sri Lanka in the first six months of 2011.
"The Sri Lanka Tourism Promotional Bureau has been participating in travel fairs in China. In October this year, and in March, May and June next year, we will be participating in travel fairs in different Chinese provinces to promote Sri Lankan tourism. China is a potential market for us," he said.
The authorities hope to raise the number of Chinese tourists per year to 100,000, the official added.
Sri Lanka's tourism sector earned US$370 million in the first half of 2011, making it one of the fastest growing industries in the country. The industry has approved many mega hotel projects with an investment of US$573 million, just two years since the conflict ended.
Currently one of Sri Lanka's biggest investors is Shangri-La Asia Ltd., a Hong Kong-based hotel and resort group, which has purchased some 2.4 hectares of prime land in the heart of Colombo to construct a multi-use complex with high-end retailing, deluxe apartments and a 500-key luxury hotel. The project is expected to complete by 2014Shangri-La has also expressed interest in developing a resort on approximately 40 hectares of land in Hambantota in southern Sri Lanka, which will be launched in 2013.
With the influx of tourists, Sri Lanka's Economic Development Ministry with the private sector will launch an ambitious programme of doubling hotel room capacity to 45,000 by 2016 over the current 22,745 to accommodate 2.5 million arrivals by that time.
Meanwhile, state-run Sri Lankan Airlines will also boost its fleet to 28 aircraft over the next four years, which may also include up to six Boeing 777 long-haul jets, Sri Lankan officials said, as tourist arrivals continue to rise.
During the bitter conflict, Sri Lanka's tourism sector was one of the worst hit, with the industry collapsing and many hotels going out of business.Many five-star hotels in Colombo were located within the High Security Zone which made sales drop to a great extent, and with suicide bombings in crowded places throughout the island, many countries imposed travel restrictions to the island nation.
Tourist arrivals and earnings only began rising in 2002, when the former Sri Lankan government signed a truce with the Tamil Tiger rebels. The upward trend also helped cushion the fallout from the 2004 tsunami, which left the coastal hotels in tatters.
But the war re-erupted with a vengeance in late July 2006 and the industry suffered severely once again.
With the end of bloodshed, however, this once shattered island has now begun making its mark on the tourism map and is all set to become a mega tourist destination within a few years and live up to its name as the "Pearl in the Indian Ocean."