Crisis-Ridden Sri Lanka Tourism Aims to Regain Momentum
Photo Credit: Sri Lanka is a biodiversity hotspot with an abundance of ecosystems and many endemic species, including the highest density of wild Asian elephants worldwide. Nearly a year after a series of terrorist attacks in the capital city Colombo, the country’s tourism industry is reestablishing itself as a desired destination. Adobe / thdk
Skift Take
The arrival of a new tourism-focused government appears to fix the global marketing conundrum Sri Lanka has long faced. Will the tourism sector finally get its act together? Hopes are high that it will.
Nearly a year on after a series of terrorist attacks targeting churches and luxury hotels in the capital city Colombo brought Sri Lanka to its knees, the country’s tourism industry is once again getting back up on its feet to reestablish itself as a desired destination.
Recent months have brought encouraging signs for Sri Lanka tourism stakeholders, not just in the swift recovery of foreign visitor numbers back to the country, but also unprecedented opportunities that arose in the wake of the unfortunate bomb attacks last April.
The Easter Sunday bombs came at a time when Sri Lanka’s nascent tourism sector was “just getting up to cruising speed”, said Miguel Cunat, chief experience officer at The Fabulous Getaway, a Colombo-based travel company, lamenting the loss of positive momentum in tourism branding when the country suffered a 70 percent plunge in tourist arrivals in the weeks after the attacks.
But the bomb attacks, interestingly, also spurred a spike in search t
