Achieving another remarkable milestone in the country’s booming tourism industry, Sri Lanka Tourism welcomed the arrival of 800,000th tourist in year 2011 at the Bandaranaike International Airport today (19th Dec.) evening. A team of tourism officials headed by the Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism-Dr.Nalaka Godahewa and Managing Director –Mr. Rumy Jauffeur with a group of representatives from travel and tourism Industry warmly welcomed the guest Mr. John Chambi and Mrs. Nadia Chambi who arrived via UL 510 Sri Lankan Airlines flight from London.
This is the first time ever; the tourism industry has received number of arrivals exceeding 800,000 in any given year, making it a ground breaking figure in tourism records.
The arrival of 800,000th tourist has turned everyone’s eyes on country’s fast growing tourism sector which has started sending positive signals of its promising future ahead.At the beginning of year 2011 Sri Lanka Tourism launched their marketing campaign named as “Refreshingly Sri Lanka – Visit 2011”,with the aim of showcasing Sri Lanka as an Island of new found freedom; a place where the visitor can experience everything that is refreshing under the sun.With this new branding, Sri Lanka tourism promoted 8 segments encapsulating 8 wonderful experiences a tourist can enjoy within eight days such as: Pristine,Heritage Bliss, Thrills, Festivities, Essence, Scenic beauty and Wild Life. These eight experiences were further stretched into twelve sub-themes to promote each month of 2011, including beaches, sports & adventure, MICE, people & culture, religious tourism, weddings & honeymoons, body & mind wellness, heritage, nature & wildlife, community & education, culinary and shopping & entertainment.
Under the guidance of Minister of Economic Development - Basil Rajapakse, a five year strategic development plan has been launched for tourism sector for year 2011-2016, based on the Mahinda Chintana -Vision for the Future - Development Policy Framework. This strategic development plan of Sri Lanka tourism will achieve its core objectives serving the needs of all stakeholders and ensuring the economic benefits of the industry distributed to a larger cross section of the society from fisherman, carftman, farmer, street vendor, tour guide, tour operator, up to the Hotel industry. During this 5 year period the country targets to attract US$ 3,000 million worth Foreign Direct investment (FDI) from tourism sector most of which will be invested in tourism infrastructure development. There will be an increase in the foreign exchange earnings from US$ 500 million in 2010 to USD 2.75 billion by the year 2016. A huge increase is expected in the tourism related employment from 125,000 in 2010 to 500,000 by 2016.
