Aiming to capitalize on a booming post-war tourism sector, the Sri Lankan government on Monday launched an ambitious five-year development strategy and invited investors to take the industry forward to meet its target of 2.5 million tourists by 2016.
Addressing the official launch of the five-year tourism development strategy, Sri Lankas Tourist Board Chairman Nalaka Godahewa said the industry has the capacity to spearhead the effort to regain economic growth lost during the three decades of war.
"Tourism grew by 46 percent in 2010 and 40 percent in the first half of 2011. We expect to see 700,000 arrivals by the end of this year. We hope to earn 2.75 billion U.S. dollars annually by 2016 and attract 3 billion U.S. dollars in tourism investments within the next five years," Godahewa said when outlining the big plan that has already gained cabinet approval and is in the process of implementation.
The development strategy also encompasses plans to increase the room capacity of hotels from the current 22,500 to 45,000, which is estimated to be necessary to house the targeted 2.5 million annual tourist arrivals by 2016.
At the moment direct and indirect employment from tourism is around 125,000 and the government hopes to increase this to 500, 000 by the time the current strategy comes to an end.
"There is huge potential for investors in this industry and we are working hard to establish a good working environment for them, " he said.
To date Sri Lanka has received over a half a billion dollars in investment in tourism related projects, including a 400 million U. S. dollar investment from Shangri-la hotels.
Xinhua