Requires Indian vacationers to boycott the Maldives is “absolutely” serving to Sri Lanka’s journey trade, the nation’s Tourism Minister Harin Fernando mentioned Thursday.
“The Maldives issue is … helping us,” Fernando informed CNBC, referencing a social media row in January that resulted in a pointy drop in Indian guests to the Maldives this 12 months.
India was the Maldives’ largest supply market in 2023. However now it sits in sixth place, behind arrivals from China, Russia, the UK, Italy and Germany, in keeping with Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Tourism.
Against this, practically 34,400 Indian vacationers went to Sri Lanka in January, greater than double the 13,759 that visited in January final 12 months, in keeping with the Sri Lanka Tourism Growth Authority. Arrivals within the first quarter of 2024 outpaced the identical time interval in 2023, regardless of a dip in April brought on by a visa controversy that noticed Sri Lankan visa quickly double in value.
Fernando additionally famous the tight relationship between Sri Lanka and India, each in enterprise and tourism.
“Sri Lanka is a big market for [Indian travelers],” he mentioned. “Sri Lanka has more to offer … Sri Lanka has more value when it comes to India.”
He referenced the nation’s seashores, casinos, procuring and the Ramayana Path, a sequence of web sites which are referenced within the Ramayana, an historic Hindu epic.
Plus, the 2 nations are extremely related, he mentioned.
“Connectivity — that is the trigger factor,” he mentioned. “Sri Lankan Airlines alone flies 80 times a week into Indian airports.”
India’s rising journey energy
Indian vacationers are set to change into the world’s fourth-largest journey spenders by 2030, a prediction which “absolutely” bodes nicely for Sri Lanka’s tourism trade, mentioned Fernando.
“I think the fastest-growing economy is India, and Sri Lanka is definitely benefiting out of it,” mentioned Fernando, including that Indian firms have made substantial investments on the island.
“ITC, the big hotel chain, opened their first hotel out of India in Sri Lanka. We just opened it about a few weeks back, and it’s a beautiful property … in Galle Face,” he mentioned, referencing the ocean-side space within the nation’s capital metropolis of Colombo. “It’s one of the best things that I’ve seen in my life.”
A Maldives idea in Sri Lanka
Fernando mentioned he hopes to see extra investments from international manufacturers coming to Sri Lanka — investments that eluded the “Teardrop Island” because it waged a 25-year civil conflict, which resulted in 2009.
“We’ve invited a lot of investment from abroad,” he mentioned. “We’re doing some water bungalows in our new area — like a Maldives concept as well — because we are surrounded by the beach.”
Fernando additionally outlined plans so as to add journey actions to attraction to youthful vacationers, from scorching air balloons to skydiving and diving to discover greater than 100 close by shipwrecks courting to World Conflict II, he mentioned.
With live performance economics inflicting a tourism increase, Sri Lanka plans to usher in musical acts to draw vacationers too, mentioned Fernando.
“We are launching Sri Lanka as an entertainment hub,” he mentioned. “We have a lot of big names coming in to perform.”
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