Fallout between Maldives and India ‘absolutely’ benefiting Sri Lanka

Requires Indian vacationers to boycott the Maldives is “absolutely” serving to Sri Lanka’s journey trade, the nation’s Tourism Minister Harin Fernando stated Thursday.

“The Maldives issue is … helping us,” Fernando informed CNBC, referencing a social media row in January that resulted in a pointy drop in Indian guests to the Maldives this yr.

India was the Maldives’ largest supply market in 2023. However now it sits in sixth place, behind arrivals from China, Russia, the UK, Italy and Germany, in line with Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Tourism.

In contrast, practically 34,400 Indian vacationers went to Sri Lanka in January, greater than double the 13,759 that visited in January final yr, in line with the Sri Lanka Tourism Improvement Authority. Arrivals within the first quarter of 2024 outpaced the identical time interval in 2023, regardless of a dip in April attributable to a visa controversy that noticed Sri Lankan visa quickly double in worth.

Fernando additionally famous the tight relationship between Sri Lanka and India, each in enterprise and tourism.

“Sri Lanka is a big market for [Indian travelers],” he stated. “Sri Lanka has more to offer … Sri Lanka has more value when it comes to India.”

He referenced the nation’s seashores, casinos, procuring and the Ramayana Path, a collection of web sites which might be referenced within the Ramayana, an historic Hindu epic.   

Plus, the 2 international locations are extremely related, he stated.

“Connectivity — that is the trigger factor,” he stated. “Sri Lankan Airlines alone flies 80 times a week into Indian airports.”

Indian vacationers are set to develop into the world’s fourth-largest journey spenders by 2030, a prediction which “absolutely” bodes effectively for Sri Lanka’s tourism trade, stated Fernando.

“I think the fastest-growing economy is India, and Sri Lanka is definitely benefiting out of it,” stated Fernando, including that Indian corporations have made substantial investments on the island.

“ITC, the big hotel chain, opened their first hotel out of India in Sri Lanka. We just opened it about a few weeks back, and it’s a beautiful property … in Galle Face,” he stated, referencing the ocean-side space within the nation’s capital metropolis of Colombo. “It’s one of the best things that I’ve seen in my life.”

Fernando stated he hopes to see extra investments from international manufacturers coming to Sri Lanka — investments that eluded the “Teardrop Island” because it waged a 25-year civil battle, which led to 2009.

“We’ve invited a lot of investment from abroad,” he stated. “We’re doing some water bungalows in our new area — like a Maldives concept as well — because we are surrounded by the beach.”

Fernando additionally outlined plans so as to add journey actions to attraction to youthful vacationers, from sizzling air balloons to skydiving and diving to discover greater than 100 close by shipwrecks relationship to World Struggle II, he stated.  

With live performance economics inflicting a tourism increase, Sri Lanka plans to usher in musical acts to draw vacationers too, stated Fernando.

 “We are launching Sri Lanka as an entertainment hub,” he stated. “We have a lot of big names coming in to perform.”