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Wednesday, 2 May 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
China-based tour operator Yingke Travel yesterday pledged to bring in 100,000 Chinese visitors to Sri Lanka by May next year in an extensive partnership with Green Leaves Leisure Ltd, to help the country meet its 2.5 million tourist arrivals target, which authorities have been struggling to achieve for nearly three years.
“We are the largest tourism operator in China handling over 12 million outbound travellers each year. We are very confident that we will be able to bring 100,000 Chinese visitors to this beautiful country within a year,” Yingke Travel Vice General Manager Haifeng Yuan said, addressing a media briefing in Colombo yesterday.
Yingke Travels operates 12,000 branches across China and has 20 subsidiaries overseas. With its local partner, Green Leaves Leisure Ltd, the Chinese tour operator sees an opportunity to increase the number of Chinese visitors coming to Sri Lanka over the next few years.
It was pointed out that the tour operator had flown in around 50,000 Chinese operators over the last five years.
Tourism Development Minister John Amaratunga said the Government was looking to attract more tourists from China as a number of other companies had also come forward with similar proposals to promote Sri Lanka.
“Initially they (Yingke Travel) had given a guarantee of bringing down a minimum of 100,000 tourists within a year, ranging from high-end and mid-spending to low-spending travellers. There are so many advantages as a result of this arrangement,” he added.
The Minister said he would be meeting the principals of the company on a visit to Shanghai on 23 May.
“We find that out of the countries around the world, China is the best bet for Sri Lanka,” Amaratunga said.
Despite the high aspirations, the Minister said that obstacles had compelled the authorities to revise the arrival target from time to time. The Government at the beginning of the year projected 2.5 million tourist arrivals and then upgraded the target to three million owing to the favourable arrival pattern. However, yesterday the Minister again downgraded it to the original arrival target of 2.5 million by the end of 2018.
“I am not satisfied so far with what we have been getting. No doubt, we have been getting the highest numbers compared to the previous years but we could be able to do better,” he added.
Since these companies have come forward, the Minister expressed confidence that Sri Lanka would achieve its objective of a minimum of 2.5 million tourist arrivals, while expecting foreign exchange earnings to go up by $ 4 billion by the end of the year.
According to Yingke Travel, an average Chinese tourist spends nearly $ 200 per night for more than five days in a particular country.
“Foreign exchange earnings are very important to our country in this era. These type of initiatives will help us to earn the much-needed foreign income for the economy at a time when the rupee has depreciated to an all-time low level because the outflow was greater than the inflow,” he stressed.
Following the mass Chinese wedding which was held in Colombo last December, the Minister said the Government was planning to host two more such events this year.
“There will be two more mass weddings of 50 couples this year in two batches. So, another 100 Chinese couples are to be married in Sri Lanka. With all these initiatives, by the end of the year I hope the statistics will show a large number of tourists who have come to Sri Lanka will be Chinese,” Amaratunga emphasised.
Authorities are targeting 300,000 Chinese visitors in 2018. In the first three months of the year Chinese tourist arrivals grew 3.3% from a year earlier to 81,849.
