Source: Developed by the authors using SLTDA (2020) and Worldometer
(2020) data
About 45 percent of the tourists arrived to Sri Lanka from four source
markets in 2019: India, UK, China and Germany. Out of these four, only
China has been successful in combatting the COVID-19 as of now. The
latest study report by Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) along with
CCT and IVY Alliance highlights the post-COVID19 travel behavior of
Chinese tourists. According to the reports Japan (18%) and Thailand
(14%) will remain as the most preferred travel destinations among the
Chinese tourist, followed by European countries (14%), and Maldives,
Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.
Further, opening up Chinese tourism destinations for domestic tourists
is a good sign of resilience in China.
On the other hand Sri Lanka is one of the few countries who still keep
the situation under control. At the moment (16th May)
there are only about 935 active COVID 19 patients recorded, and that is
less than most of the best tourism destinations in South Asia. This is a
strong pull factor to promote Sri Lanka as a post-COVID19 destination
with a new tag line ‘So Safe Sri Lanka’ . Therefore, we can
expect an early resumption of Chinese tourists’ arrivals to Sri Lanka
before we think of the West. Although Sri Lanka tourism has failed to
identify niche tourist from China, we suggest the practitioners to do a
comprehensive market survey and prepare the destination to welcome the
right clientele from China.
As mentioned earlier it is not possible to resume mass tourism in near
future since mass gatherings are risky until a vaccine is developed to
fight with COVID-19. Now the challenge lies ahead is to re-brand Sri
Lanka as a ‘Niche Tourism Destination’ after correct tourism product
identification and development. The concept of ‘quantity’ has failed and
the ‘quality’ is emerging. Alternative tourism will protect the people,
environment and economy while empowering the rural communities to
increase their living standards. A learning based active experience will
be a definite value addition to the promotion of alternative tourism
development in Sri Lanka while using correct platforms to market our
products. Researches based innovative methods will give birth to
‘Creative Tourism’ that will position Sri Lanka as a pristine Niche
tourist destination in the world.