Miss Earth commends Colombo as top fastest growing tourist city of 2015

Visiting winner of the Miss Earth pageant 2014 Jamie Herrel commended the country’s commercial capital Colombo for its top ranking in Master Card’s list of the fastest growing cities in the world during a meeting with Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Chairman Rohantha Athukorala.

Colombo was ranked as the fastest growing city in the world, posting 21% growth in 2015 ahead of Chengdu in China’s Sichuan province and Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates.

News of Colombo’s top ranking followed the recent launch of a Rs. 200 million creative development strategy and the selection of a global communication partner backed by a large Rs. 1 billion media budget, complemented by a further Rs. 200 million investment in digital marketing.

The country itself recorded 714,584 visitors by the end of May 2015 with arrivals in May registering 26.1% growth over the previous year.

Peru’s capital of Lima was ranked ninth fastest growing city in the world and fastest in South America while the United States managed to field a single entry onto the list in the city of Houston.

“This accolade motivates us to work harder in unison with the key stakeholders SLITO and THASL who worked very closely in the chalking of the Sri Lanka Tourism master plan for 2016 which focuses on the top 18 markets that can bring in a demand chain of 1.8 million visitor arrivals,” Athukorala said.

Tourist arrivals statistics in May were notable in that it saw a turnaround in arrivals from Russia, which posted a 23.4% YoY increase while overall arrivals from Eastern Europe recorded 25.9% growth with 2,847 visitors at the end of May.

India remained at the top of arrivals figures, sourcing 1119,593 visitors during the month, amounting to a 26.8% YoY increase while arrivals from China increased by a sharp 71.9% YoY in May and 80.2% cumulatively up to 79,098 arrivals.

The fastest growing countries are; Colombo, Sri Lanka 21.1%, Chengdu, China 20.7, Abu Dhabi, UAE 20.4%, Osaka, Japan 19.8%, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 18.0%, Xi An, China 16.2%, Taipei, Taiwan 14.9%, Tokyo 14.6%, Lima, Peru 13.9% and Vietnam trailing in with Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 12.9%.

“Whilst the growth can be commendable the fact if the matter is that five countries account for 50% of the visitor arrivals which explains the risk at hand as against number one visitor arrival city of London registers 26 feeder countries accounting for 50% of arrivals which explains the spread of the risk,” Athukorala explained.