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TOURISM INDUSTRY DATA THAT SHOW MORE CHINESE TOURISTS WILL FLOCK TO SRI LANKA

Forward Keys (a Sri Lankan tourism industry data company) said at “Asian Hotel & Tourism Investment Conference” (which was held in Colombo from November 27th to 29th, 2016)that Chinese tourists to Sri Lanka are expected to increase by 10.2% in the next 6 months. In October of 2016, over 20,000 Chinese tourists visited Sri Lanka, a year-on-year growth of 19.8%. Thanks to China market, Sri Lanka tourism has had rapid development since the end of civil war in 2009.

According to data released by Forward Keys, the number of visitors that flew to Sri Lankan grew by 12% last year, twice as fast as the overall growth rate of the Asia Pacific region. In addition, many investors, including those from China, expressed great interest in Sri Lanka.

Famous tourism projects in Sri Lanka: seaside train (on the top) and tea garden train (on the bottom)

According to Minister of Tourism and Christian Religious Affairs, John Amaratunga, it’s expected that Sri Lanka will attract 2.5 million foreigner visitors in 2017 and China will continue to be an important source country. He said that in 2016, 2 million foreign tourists visited Sri Lanka. The number reached 1.8 million in the first 11 months. Tourists from China and India had a remarkable increase. Total tourism revenue in 2016 was 2.98 billion. Sri Lanka expects to attract at least 3 million visitors in this year and 4 million visitors by 2020. Ministry of Tourism plans to carry on Sri Lanka tourism promotional events in major cities around the globe. Flight adjustment brought by maintenance of Colombo International Airport in the next few months may have some impact on tourism industry. “We are taking remedial measures regarding the concerns”, said Amaratunga.

Keen on attracting more international capital, Sri Lankan government announced that they will develop a series of tourism zones. President Senna said at the conference on 28th that the next three years will be Sri Lanka’s “tourism and investment years”. Thanks to government support to tourism, Sri Lanka hotel industry is booming as well. Take capital city of Colombo for example, several international renowned five star hotels are under construction and many old brand five star hotels are renovating. This shows that Sri Lanka has great demand for building materials and hotel supplies, which is good news for Chinese enterprises.

2017 the third edition China Products (Colombo, Sri Lanka) Exhibition will be held on November 22-24 at the SLECC (Sri Lanka Exhibition & Convention Centre). We are looking forward to exploring and promising this potential and emerging market with you!


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