'Tourism needs aggressive marketing strategies'
By Sanjeevi Jayasuriya
The tourism industry has gone beyond the set target of 950,000
tourists for this year as the number was achieved last week indicating
the strong growth prospects for the sector.
"We are pleased that Sri Lanka was able to achieve the arrival target
for the year and believe that the two-fold strategy could further fuel
the growth momentum.
It is important to develop and improve the product supplemented by
comprehensive marketing and promotion efforts, Jetwing Group, Chairman
Hiran Cooray told Sunday Observer Business.
"Marketing the country as an emerging destination needs to be more
focused and aggressive strategies should be in place to attract bigger
and better numbers in the coming years.
As other tourist destinations constantly upgrade their products and
services, working towards quality service delivery is important for Sri
Lanka to remain in the global map," he said.
The goal of reaching 2.5 million tourists by 2016 is achievable and
the concentration on product and infrastructure development coupled with
marketing initiatives will be a step in right direction.
The country will be able to meet the capacity requirement and Jetwing
has also embarked on four hotel projects out of which two are currently
under construction with plans to commence the other two in early next
year, Cooray said.Sri Lanka overtook the Maldives in tourist arrivals as
it recorded an increase of 16.5 percent to 883,353 in the 11 months to
November 2012. The Maldives arrivals up 2.4 percent to 866,310 during
the same period. The country also recorded the 950,000th tourist arrival
during December surpassing the target set for the year.
Meanwhile the economic growth of the country continued with Sri
Lanka's GDP growing by 4.8 percent in 3 Q down from 8.5 a year earlier.
Agriculture contracts 0.5 percent while industry and services sectors
up by 7.3 percent and 4.6 percent respectively. Tourism is considered as
one of the fastest growth sectors in the economy.
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