Leisure
Sri Lanka is a country which is well known for its leisure industry, which attracts tourists from different parts of the world in large numbers. Around 400,000 tourists visit the country each year.
The leisure industry suffered a lot after the country faced the tsunami in December, 2004. Before the island was hit by this natural calamity, the tourism industry was witnessing spectacular annual growth of 96 per cent for the two years after truce was declared between the government and Tamil rebels in 2003.
Naturally, the leisure industry, which is closely linked with the tourist industry, also witnessed big growth in this period. The hotel industry in Sri Lanka is primarily dependent on the leisure segment. Besides Colombo, most of the hotel rooms were available at Kandy, Anuradhapura, Sigriya, Nuwara Eliya, Yala West, and Hikkaduwa. Generally, a tourist to the country would arrive first at Colombo and then they would visit the hill country at Kandy.
They would also visit the cultural centres like Anuradhapura and then finally head for the beaches. In fact, the beaches constitute the most important part of the itinerary of any tourist visiting Sri Lanka.
The leisure industry has been further affected by the resumption of the armed conflict between the government and Tamil rebels since 2006.
Colombo is no longer considered safe for tourists after LTTE aerial bombing in 2007 and series of bomb attacks on civilian targets. According to The Chairman, Sri Lanka Tourism Board Renton de Alwis, there is no immediate chance in improvement in the situation.
Unless the ethnic problem of the country is properly solved, there is no hope for the industry in the future.
In fact the hoteliers are considering this to be a buyers’ market at present and they are compelled to offer their rooms at much reduced rates.
Many resort hotels have started laying off staff because of reduced tourist traffic. The situation has turned worse after the withdrawal of chartered flights of German tourists by CONDOR and LTU since May, 2008.
Tourists are also being advised not to visit places like Anuradhapura, Yala and Udawalawe, which are the three main tourist attractions, because of the current conflict going on. The statistics also shows a clear drop in tourist traffic from January to end April, 2008 compared to the same period in 2007.
In spite of the great possibilities, presently the tourist industry is bogged down because of the ongoing armed conflict in the country.
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 18th, 2008 at 8:21 am and is filed under Information. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.