Treasures of Sri Lanka bolstered

By Rohantha ATHUKORALA

In the latest UNWTO report it is stated that tourism has become one of the world's largest foreign exchange earners with the industry catapulting to 900 billion dollars and visitor numbers crossing the 980 million visitors globally.

The growth has been ignited with the launch of e - commerce where a holiday can be booked and paid for in ones own home. A top search engine such as Google has revealed that tourism has now become the most traded item in the internet.

With this new revelation, the implication to Sri Lanka is that in the key markets of UK, France and Germany we need to have a strong internet- based communication strategy. It is estimated that almost 70 percent of the people tend to book their holidays on line.

Given that Sri Lanka has been recording an outstanding performance in the past two years, with the industry touching a 800 million dollars and almost 850,000 tourist flocking to the island, the key challenge now for Sri Lanka is to identify what the most compelling reason we can offer, for a five star global traveller to go to the Sri Lankan website and select the country for their next vacation.

Sri Lankan market share

Even with the booming tourism industry,the fact of the matter is that Sri Lanka's market share stands at around 0.07 percent. Which means that if we can up the number by a meagre 0.01 percent share increase, it can result in an additional foreign exchange earning of Rs six billion to the country. In this perspective, we see the enormous opportunity that this industry holds for Sri Lanka.

However, the important point to note is that we must not chase behind statistics, but drive after the proposition that can attract a quality tourist that can spend 200 dollars per day, as against the 97 dollars that is being spent today.

If one tracks back on the performance of this industry, we can see that the country has been robbed of over a Rs. 7,000 billion.($ 7 billion) due to conflict situation that plagued our country.

If not for that, we would have been attracting around 1.5 million tourists which explains the capacity development that would have happened in Sri Lanka- this includes new hotels, new cab services and development in industries such as handicrafts, batik etc.

In contrast, if we take a country such as Cambodia, the country registered only two hundred thousand tourist arrivals in 1983, but today it has crossed the 2.1 million traveller mark.

This has been the opportunity cost for Sri Lanka to my mind. Some can argue that Sri Lanka does not have the carrying cover for such a large number of tourists but I feel that the market dynamics would have taken this number to that reality.

The silver lining

In the recent past, we saw how the negative aspects of Sri Lanka being highlighted and hitting the global media.

The drastic policy decision to move the exchange rate to a market-oriented dynamic platform, has aggravated the situation due to the spike in the cost of electricity, bread and gasoline but to my mind this is the reality.

Our duty is to find a way of creatively interpreting these findings, whilst focusing our efforts of ramping up the export business. Getting back to tourism, an interesting insight for Sri Lanka is that almost 83 percent of those visiting Sri Lanka said that they will come back to the country which means that we have a satisfied customer due to the diversity of the product. Be it wildlife, the beaches, culture or heritage.

This means that if we can develop a direct communication strategy (as we have the addresses of the travellers who visited Sri Lanka) maybe we can attract fifty percent of them for a repeat purchase given that devaluation has made Sri Lanka a less pricey destination by almost 10 percent so far.

However, the challenge we need to focus on is what the key selling proposition that we want to associate Sri Lanka with in the years to come, so that we give a strong reason to drive repeat purchase from those who have visited Sri Lanka in the recent past.

Sri Lanka-less polluted

Even though the economy has experienced accelerated growth from a 20 billion dollar economy in the 1990's to be a 59 billion rupee economy as at end 2011, our geographic landscape has yet maintained its pristine natural beauty, that many of our neighbours like India or Pakistan could not preserve.

Some can argue that Sri Lanka's economy should have been a 100 billion dollars by now and that Sri Lanka's development was retarded. However, one can also make the insinuation that due to the development not being so rapid, pollution levels are reflective at a low ebb.

Hence it is fair to say that against the backdrop of economic engines in the Asian region such as China, India and Pakistan, Sri Lanka will emerge as a 'Less polluted country'.

It is a positioning opportunity that is fast emerging for our beautiful little country in the backdrop of the Apparel Industry saying 'The first Ethical Sourcing destination and the Tea Industry being tainted as the 1st Ozone friendly Tea Nation of the world which are all on this theme of Cleanliness and less pollution.

The challenge is if we get together and recognise this emerging new positioning that has happened due to an industry- led strategy than a nation branding initiative.

But is it definitely a new positioning that can differentiate Sri Lanka from the rest of the destinations in the Asian region.

The UN human development report on climate change very clearly justifies the positioning opportunity which will emerging and it will become stronger in the years to come as countries such as India, China, Malaysia and Singapore have a robust development agenda which is going to add to the pollution their respective countries. Currently Sri Lanka's the total emission (MtC02) is at a low 11.5 whilst per capita CO2 emission is at low ebb of 0.6 as against China at 5007.1 and India at 1342.1.

If we further analyse this 'Clean, less polluted proposition' as a new strategy, given the emphasis on climate maybe we can attract the attention of a five star tourist.

Due to the fact of the strong product features like the beaches, wildlife, our 2,500 year heritage and family- oriented culture, maybe a typical positioning and the treasures of Sri Lanka can be seen in an ethical way.

The Thailand floods that killed the tourism industry for almost three months and the smog that covered Europe and left millions of people stranded in Europe, further strengthens Sri Lanka's claim- ' Treasures of Sri Lanka - the ethical way'.