Spending pattern of tourists changing

By Gamini Warushamana

Estner Krieken and Marlon Donkers from Holland are on a long tour of Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. They said that their budget for the whole trip was around 3,000 Euro per person and the budget in Sri Lanka is only 700 Euro per person for the three weeks they are staying here and it is less than Rs. 6,000 per day per person.

Clare Muscat and Doreen Falzon

Tyrone David

Last week they were travelling in a second-class compartment of the Colombo-Badulla train which was packed with passengers including around 100 foreign tourists. Most of them were standing and Estner and Marlon too were standing on the foot-board all through the journey from Peradeniya to Talawakele and their destination was Nuwara Eliya. Nurses by profession, they could be classified as lower middle-class tourists. Their spending power was obviously low.

Clare Muscat and Doreen Falzon from Malta too could be classified as middle-class and they too sought rooms at around Rs. 2,000 per day.

Air hostesses by profession at Air Malta, their budget in Sri Lanka is 50 Euros (around Rs. 8,500) a day per person.

Tourists in this category who stay at cheap hotels, travel by public transport and dine at cheap restaurants, are common in this new development era of the tourism industry in Sri Lanka.

The tourism industry in Sri Lanka is growing fast. The government targets a revenue of $ 2.5 billion from the industry by 2016.

While the number is growing there are changes taking place in the composition of the tourists and to facilitate growth, the authorities must understand these changes and unless their plans are based on hypothetical conditions they may not get the desired results.

One argument of critics is that although the number is increasing their spending power is far less and they are classified as cheap tourists. However, the statistical evidence does not support this argument and the foreign exchange receipts per tourist per day is increasing and it has increased by $ 10, from US $ 88 to US $ 98 in 2011 compared to the previous year.

The benefits of the industry trickle down to the people through this segment of tourists. Stakeholders of the industry such as taxi drivers, small hotels and restaurant owners say that they benefit only from this category.

High-end tourists who come through tour operators, stay at luxury hotels, travel by luxury buses owned by big hotels or travel operators, bring nothing directly to those who also look for some benefits from the growing tourism industry.

Another feature of this segment of tourists is that they do not depend on travel operators or tourist guides.

Clare, Doreen, Estner and Marlon and almost all others who were in the train had organised their trip on their own after searching for information on the internet. They did not have a place to stay in Nuwara Eliya or Kandy until they came to the cities. They planned their route getting information from hotels they stayed in or from others they encountered on their journeys.

Scrambling to get into a train

Tourists locating seating accomodation in the train.

For instance, Magdalena, a German girl we met on the train was travelling directly to Kandy without staying in Negombo or Colombo because according to her information, hotel rooms were expensive.

After a long journey from Frankfurt via Bangkok she was extremely tired and was sleeping all the way. Until she got down at Peradeniya railway station she did not have any idea about a place to stay in. However, she was confident of finding a room at around Rs. 2,000 per day in Kandy.

Another advantage of this low-budget tourists is that they act as the main promotional channel of Sri Lanka as a destination.

The experience they share with others when they return to their home countries is stronger than any publicity campaign.

The residential manager of the Grand Hotel, Nuwara Eliya, the most expensive hotel in the city, Tyrone David said that there is a marked increase in the number of high-end tourists as well.

The composition of tourists has changed over the past four years. Today, the occupancy rate of the hotel, which has 153 rooms, is over 87 percent. Group travellers are less and individuals who book at the hotel through the internet has been increasing.

Tourists arriving from Middle Eastern countries have been increasing and Nuwara Eliya is an ideal tourism product to market in the Middle East.

Their spending power is high and they also come with families and stay longer periods, he said.

Apart from peace and security in the country there are other factors that support the growth of the tourism industry.

When we consider the development of communication, internet and transportation in the world over the past decade, travellers are better informed and the cost of travelling has decreased and become affordable for ordinary people in developed and emerging economies.

Tourism is considered an information-intensive industry that can gain important synergies from the use of the internet. The tourism sector has been a pioneer in adopting and developing ICT applications and today it is rated among the top product or service categories purchased via internet in all parts of the world.

The growing middle-class in emerging economies too have created demand. Therefore, there is a spectrum of tourists with varied spending power. Hence the availability of tourism information in the internet is vital today.

The authorities should consider this trend and assist these tourists because, as they said, they face many difficulties due to the gap between the information they get and the real situation on the ground.

Lack of information is the main factor and they said that the information they get is complicated and people give different figures with regard to distance between cities, travel time and taxi charges.

For instance, Estner and Marlon wanted to travel from Nuwara Eliya to Ella and from Ella to Sigiriya and did not wish to return to a town where they had stayed earlier. So travelling from Ella (in Badulla) to Sigiriya directly is long and complicated which they could not understand. Therefore, the lack of tourism information is a serious issue that the authorities should take into account.

The pathetic situation in the public transport system is another issue that has to be given priority. Improvement of sanitation facilities at the Peradeniya, Hatton and Thalawakele railway stations where hundreds of foreign tourists transit daily is more urgent than the construction of a domestic airport in Nuwara Eliya. For instance the toilets at the Peradeniya railway station had not been cleaned for weeks. The tourist information centre at the Talawakele railway station few years back with much publicity and at a huge cost has been abandoned.

The safety of foreign tourists is another factor that has to be considered. When asked what are the unpleasant experiences they faced in Sri Lanka, Clare and Doreen said that only a cockroach in the bathroom but Estner and Marlon said that some local youth harassed them verbally in Negombo.

Tyrone David too said that complaints from foreign tourists on sexual harassment are reported frequently.

The situation is not at an alarming level but we need minimise them as much as possible. Even with the unpleasant experience they faced, Estner and Marlon said that they would recommend Sri Lanka as a safe destination for tourists. Meanwhile, incidents such as the murder of Kuram Shaikah, a British national in Tangalle in 2011 may damage the image of the tourist industry.