Wednesday Sep 25, 2024
Wednesday Sep 25, 2024
Monday, 9 June 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
I will focus my presentation on some stark realities observed about travel and tourism in this region and its unchartered yet highly potential environment.
As you may know India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal make up South Asia, a region which is home to a solid one/third of the world’s most diverse populations in terms of race, religion, culture and a region, and blessed with natures best climates and topography. This is the reality in South Asia but it comes with a silver-lining.
Most of the world’s major religions and philosophers, the world’s most magical mountain ranges – the Himalayas with Everest, the highest peak in the world, and Adam’s Peak in Sri Lanka’s central hills, Pakistan’s Karakoram ranges and the Hindu Kush Valley, most of the world’s quality water resources and rare highly potent medicinal plants, are all found in this region.
It is arguably unmatched in its biodiversity.
Rich, dense virgin forests, vast ocean resources and coral reefs around the Maldives and Sri Lanka, mangroves of the Sunderbans, flora and fauna with unmatched diversity are all here in the South Asian region.
Home to the magical Taj Mahal, Sigiriya in Sri Lanka, Ajanta, Thimpu and Taxila, with a heritage and culture that dates back thousands of years.
Exquisite cuisine, exotic spices and priceless gems that are in the world’s most famous museums and palaces, originated from this region which is also known to have the world’s friendliest people.
With all this and more, South Asia has all the key ingredients to delight visitors from any part of the globe.
The South Asian region attracts approximately 2%-3% of the 1 billion visitors that travel around the world annually.
Even with that figure, this creates inbound tourism opportunities in the region that attracts millions of tourists from all over the world. This is an opportunity for the airline, travel and tourism industries and this is growing by the day. Expansion in existing airlines and the creation of new budget airlines happens due to this growth. Many new hotels are being built because of this potential.
Growth of the middle class
In this region there is a significant growth of the middle class. According to the World Bank figures in 2012 there is 1.649 billion population in this region. 31% of this population is living in the urban areas.
Due to the growth of the middle class, 20% of this population has the same or higher buying power as any developed nation. Therefore, the figure is that at least 300 million people have the buying power for our airline and other related industries. Specifically, this creates outbound tourism to other parts of the world such as the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia. Also the fact that this population travels within the region once again creates opportunities for the airline and its related industries.
This region that Vietnam belongs to – South East Asia – on the other hand has been successful in doubling its visitors within the last 10 years; which is remarkable.
The world is aware of the “Magic of South East Asia” and there are lots of lessons to be learned from you.
In this scenario, the South Asian region only registered a marginal growth with the exception of India, Maldives and now Sri Lanka – showing positive signs of a healthy recovery in tourism as well as a growing interest in foreign investment in tourism.
Whether negative or positive, India by far, has been the strongest influence in the region’s past and will be in the future too.
It is so with most of the other South Asian nations such as Sri Lanka and Nepal. Sri Lanka’s diversity is unique in that a variety of attractions can all be enjoyed within short distances.
Most of the destinations in South Asia are waiting to be discovered to their full potential.
You are perhaps aware that India and Sri Lanka have a relationship which is thousands of years old. Our main religions Buddhism and Hinduism came from India. Our aviation ties date back to many centuries considering what the legend of Ramayana depicts and commercial aviation ties began with the signing of an Air Services Agreement with India in 1948.
SriLankan Airlines has worked very successfully with India’s “Incredible India” campaign right across our network, to promote the Indian destinations that Sri Lankan flies to.
Today, more than ever before, India is one of the most important destinations for Sri Lanka and SriLankan Airlines.
SriLankan operates 72 flights a week to India and together with our sister carrier Mihin Lanka, we operate a total of 80 flights a week to 10 destinations in India.
SriLankan also has a couple of significant “firsts” to India. We were the first non-Indian international airline to commence international flights to Calicut and Bodhgaya.
Indians make up the largest number of tourists to visit Sri Lanka annually, amounting to over 100,000 visitors, which is the reason why Sri Lanka was more liberal in introducing the ‘Visa on Arrival’ policy and now, the online visa policy.
Reciprocally, over 250,000 Sri Lankans visit India annually and Sri Lankan Airlines is largely responsible for the carriage of this traffic. Sri Lanka has also been the venue for many small and medium Indian conferences.
Collaborative promotion
Our future in this region depends on such collaborative ventures among each other, as well as with nations in the Asia Pacific region.
For many decades, the South Asian region has promoted tourism but compared to the progress made by other regional tourism promotional initiatives started much later than SAARC, such as by ASEAN, the European Union and the Mekong Tourism Initiative, progress in South Asia has been very slow.
At individual country level, much needs to be done to help support a regional image and perception change.
Most of the South Asian countries do have unique tourism promotional models with some successful best practices.
Maldives, reputed as a most successful island destination in the world, works on a business model encompassing partnerships with foreign investors and tour operators. It now has some of the best international and regional brands selling unique leisure tourism. The model has worked well for the Maldives.
Nepal pioneered a model of community-based tourism offering its unique nature and heritage conservation, with a clear focus on community benefit and sustainability.
The world is yet to be enticed by adventure in Pakistan where the mighty Karakoram ranges in the north to the Indus River valley in the south offers trekking, mountaineering, white water rafting, wild boar hunting, mountain and desert safaris, camel and Yak safaris, trout fishing and bird watching in natures best settings.
Endowed with a large land mass, Pakistan also has rich and varied flora and fauna as well as a combination of forests, meadows, deserts, coastline, wetlands with a remarkable rich variety of vegetation and wildlife. It has the world’s smallest mammal, the Mediterranean pigmy shrew to the largest mammal ever known – the Blue Whale.
Yet Pakistan still remains a small player in global tourism due to its complex socio-economic status and negative global image.
Bhutan, “Land of the Thunder dragon” has its own model of tourism that is based on a demand curve to create a value for the destination. The Government limits access to Bhutan to a few thousand tourists each year at a premium charge. Its business model is aimed at conserving its culture, natural resources and heritage. The model is directly related to its unique development benchmark of “Gross National Happiness” in contrast to the more common Gross National Product.
Visitor arrival growth to Bangladesh have remained marginal for several years owing to its political, social and access limitations hindering its realisation of its full tourism potential which is high in water-based activities such as angling, water skiing, river cruising, rowing, yachting, and sea-bathing as well as other close-to-nature outdoor activities.
Whether competing with new and emerging destinations or responding to world “shocks”, addressing the challenges facing the industry in a collaborative manner will be key to the growth of South Asian tourism.
Economic development
Despite the global downturn, Sri Lanka’s economy grew at a healthy rate of 6.4% and unemployment declined to low levels. The Asian Development Bank’s report forecasts that Sri Lanka’s economic growth will reach 7.2% in 2014. Over the past nine years, Sri Lanka’s per capita income has tripled. The Government is working towards a per capita income of $ 4,000 by 2016.
The economic blueprint focuses on developing maritime, aviation, energy, knowledge and commercial sectors, to achieve a hub status, in the South Asian region, enhanced by our tourism strategy.
Massive island-wide infrastructure development, unforeseen in the history of the island, is being carried out, to create an integrated network of highways; ports and airports. Power supply to all corners of the island and irrigation projects to facilitate agriculture and industry, are also ongoing.
Tourist arrivals reached an all-time high in 2013. In the first four months of 2014, Chinese tourists to Sri Lanka increased by a staggering 68%. Sri Lanka has much to offer leisure travellers.
We have a perfect combination for a holiday with some of the best beaches and oceans; nature; wellness and culture in a unique setting.
I am sure most of you are familiar with Sri Lanka, if not I urge you to visit our country. Sri Lanka too has several wildlife parks and UNESCO World Heritage sites; pristine rain forests; tea plantations; and a wide variety of flora and fauna in an area just 65,000 square kilometres. Blue whales in particular can be spotted off the southern, western and eastern coasts, near the shores.
Among other elephant locations the most spectacular site of elephants is the Minneriya Wildlife Sanctuary; now popularly known to the world, as the ‘elephant gathering’.
The hotel sector is expanding with some mega projects that include hospitality leaders like Shangri-La, Hyatt, Marriot and the Sheraton with other leading chains being negotiated.
Hotel rooms are expected to triple to cater to the growing inbound traffic.
Sri Lanka prepares to welcome 2.5 million visitors by 2016.
Eco focus
Sri Lanka’s second international airport, the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport is now in operation and can accommodate any of the largest aircraft. The airport is currently serving our transit passengers reducing the congestion in Katunayake.
The location of the new airport is rich in bio-diversity. It is a “gateway” to a pristine location with vast investment potential.
Aviation and wildlife authorities are working together to strike a balance for humans and animal, to live in harmony in this area. Many eco-friendly initiatives are being introduced to maintain its pristine nature. 15% of the new airport’s energy requirement will be from renewable sources.
A whole gamut of connected infrastructure which includes expressways and railways are being developed to connect the airport and seaport in the southern region to the rest of the island.
For sustainable tourism, Sri Lankan is in a partnership with UK’s Whale & Dolphin Conservation (WDC) society to promote responsible whale watching, especially to protect the blue whales seen off the coast of Sri Lanka.
We have long and short-term plans for fleet upgrades and renewal. Sri Lankan has already added new A320-200s and A330-200s to the fleet and continues to phase out existing aircraft, for fuel-efficient, modern aircraft A330-300s by October this year.
Long-term, we plan to we will have a fleet of next-generation aircraft including the airbus A350-900s – a progressive replacement over a period of 10 years commencing in 2016.
Sri Lankan Airlines the national carrier has just joined the leading global alliance oneworld alliance, and is flying among the world’s leading airlines expanding its reach and accessibility to 1,000 destinations.
Sri Lankan becomes the first airline in South Asia to join any airline alliance and is the first to connect South Asia to the One World network.
This partnership enhances our product offering in a major dimension to our frequent flyers.
The region is currently seeing an aviation impetus. Several private and government-owned airlines are flying between India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Other destinations in South Asia need to open up to private airlines.
However, airports in the region have great constraints and need more modern development and facilitation initiatives for future ease of access and movement. Much needs to be done to be on par with the rest of Asia and in particular with those in the Asia Pacific region and China.
Emerging Sri Lanka
Let me conclude by briefly giving you some facts about the new Sri Lanka that is emerging.
Sri Lankan operates around 280 weekly flights out of Colombo to Europe, the Middle East and Asian destinations. Our route network now stands at 85 destinations in 42 countries.
Our commercial focus will be to look at long-term solutions in EU markets and expand services in the emerging markets in Asia Pacific.
We all know that the challenges facing the tourism industry are numerous and complex. Strengthening the collaboration of tourism marketing and partnerships among cities, provinces and neighbouring countries such as Sri Lanka and others, will undoubtedly result in better growth opportunities.
Many opportunities exist for collaborative partnerships in tourism and aviation with other nations and I am sure, that the South Asian nations are open for partnerships with other Asian countries.
Good partnerships, the right locations that bring out the features and attractions of our unique destinations combined with the logistics of airlines on board facilities and conveniences, will vastly improve tourist traffic flows to our regions.
Sri Lanka is the centre of South Asia that is also the centre of the world. According to the Buddhist philosophy, Lord Buddha was born and spent time in the centre of the world such as India and Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is the country that preserved Buddhism to date and those peaceful values are the face of Sri Lanka. From British colonisation we have acquired the common law that created a stable legal system. We also acquired the British system of education in Sri Lanka that has become world class. We supply skilled labour to Middle East, Europe, Canada and Australia. With all these plus points Sri Lanka has suffered from a war for 30 years and was freed from it in May 2009. So, the people of Sri Lanka deserve the new development opportunities especially in tourism and service sectors. You are welcome to participate these opportunities where you will be welcomed as foreign investors. You may be given many years of tax holidays. By coming to Sri Lanka, you can also enjoy tax fee benefits established between SAARC countries. So, Sri Lanka is the centre in our region through which you can access a vast population of customers with a strong buying power.
I would like to close this session by inviting you to Sri Lanka for your next conference in 2015 and I would like to invite APOT on behalf our President Mahinda Rajapaksa. I wish your organisation APOT, a very successful and progressive future.
