Sri Lanka urged to aggressively tap Australian outbound tourist market

Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Chairman Kishu Gomes (third from left), TripadDeal CEO Chris Jewell (fifth from left), and Aitken Spence Travels Ltd., Managing Director Nalin Jayasundera (extreme left) with the other members of TripaDeal executive team
Pic by Nimalasiri Edirishinghe

• SL has potential to become Australians’ favourite holiday destination in Asia: TripADeal
• Points out direct flights between Colombo and Sydney crucial for reaching full potential 
• Australia became SL’s 5th largest tourism source market last year with over 110, 000 arrivals 

Provided the right connectivity, Sri Lanka has the potential to become Australians’ favourite holiday destination in Asia surpassing Bali in Indonesia, according to Australia’s most popular online travel company, TripADeal.

TripADeal executive team led by TripADeal Co-Founder and CEO Norm Black last week engaged in an all-island tour to show solidarity with Sri Lanka in the aftermath of April 21 Easter Sunday attacks. Concluding the tour, Black and TripADeal team joined a media discussion at the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) in Colombo, last Friday. “If someone asks me what my favourite destination is, I would say it is Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has much more to offer to the Australian traveller than what Bali has. “If everyone is saying Sri Lanka is better than Bali, we should be able to get more Australian tourists to visit Sri Lankan than Bali,” he added. 

TripADeal officials noted that 5.29 million Australian travellers holiday in Asia per annum with 1.3 million of them choosing Indonesia as their favourite destination. 

Black who has been visiting Bali since his childhood insisted that he would never visit Bali over Sri Lanka as the island nation has much more to offer with diversity being the key.
Australia became the fifth largest tourism source market for Sri Lanka with arrivals reaching 110,928 in 2018, a 36 percent growth over the previous year.

With SriLankan Airlines launching non-stop flights from Australia in October 2017 from Melbourne to Colombo, tourist arrivals from Australia more than doubled last year compared to 51,614 arrivals in 2012.

However, Black pointed out that direct flights between Sydney and Colombo are crucial to reach the full potential of Australian outbound tourism market for Sri Lanka tourism. 
“A big opportunity lies with direct flights to Sydney. Many Australian tourists depart from Sydney. That’s where the numbers are.  

The officials of SriLankan Airline need to be aware that they are limiting opportunities to this island by not having a direct flight to Sydney,” he elaborated. 

SriLankan Airlines was planning to launch direct flights to Sydney from next year onwards along with Paris under its five-year strategic plan.

SriLankan CEO Vipula Gunatilleka recently told a foreign media outlet that their plans to Sydney are likely to get shifted now. 
SriLankan Airlines however is planning to go on with its plans to operate flights to Nairobi, Ho Chi Minh City and Kathmandu.

When queried about Australian airlines’ interest in launching direct flights to Colombo, Black noted that some airlines are keen to do it.

“They are showing interest. However, we believe that the national carrier should have its flag on the ground before a budget carrier takes away that business,” he said. 

It was reported that Australian low-cost carrier Jetstar, a wholly owned subsidiary of Qantas was planning to launch direct flights to Colombo. However, Jetstar officials maintained silence over such plans.

SriLankan Airlines currently has a codeshare partnership with Qantas.

As over 200,000 Sri Lankan expatriates reside in Melbourne and surrounding areas, TripADeal officials said Australian tourists don’t have sufficient space in the direct flight from Melbourne to visit Sri Lanka as flights are being full with expat crowds.  

TripADeal team was scheduled to meet SriLankan Airlines officials on Friday afternoon to present their business case for the national carrier to commence direct flights 
to Sydney. 

Speaking on the occasion, Sri Lankan inbound travel partner of TripADeal , Aitken Spence Travels Ltd Managing Director Nalin Jayasundera said Australia could deliver 250,000 tourists to Sri Lanka per annum in a few years on very conservative projections. 

Jayasundera acknowledged that TripaDeal generates the highest number of Australian tourists to Sri Lanka topping all other tour operators. 

TripADeal generated 5, 500 Aussie tourists to Sri Lanka last year, which is significantly up from a mere 250 arrivals three years back. 

Prior to Easter Sunday attacks, the travel agency was targeting to deliver 10,000 Aussie tourists to Sri Lanka this year. 

Despite the temporary set-back, TripADeal officials said they are confident of long-term prospects of Sri Lanka while committing to join in with Sri Lankan tourism authorities to launch tourism promotional campaigns in Australia, in addition to their own marketing activities.

“Our customers stopped coming to Sri Lanka from the first month following the Easter Sunday attacks. However, a month later we bounced back. The feedback of every single person visiting Sri Lanka has been very positive.

“It’s not the time to sit back and wait as we know Sri Lanka is a safe destination, and TripADeal was confident to bring the executive team here. Once we share the message that Sri Lanka is open for tourism in Australian travel market, our competitors will follow suit and promote Sri Lanka as well,” Black added. 

 TripADeal has spent over US $1 million in promoting Sri Lanka during the last 12 months. 

SLTPB Chairman Kishu Gomes remarked that the Australian market is crucial for Sri Lanka as tourists from that country are generally high-spenders. 

“We want arrivals to increase from these markets as opposed to markets such as India or China. What we want in the future is that affluent tourists coming to Sri Lanka spending money. That’s where the real economic benefit is,” he noted.

On average, Australian tourists spend 14 days in Sri Lanka, which is high compared to tourists from the Asian region, who spend only 6.8 nights on average.

TripADeal, which topped The Australian Financial Review’s Fast 100 list in 2016, plans to serve over 100,000 tourists this year, almost doubling its customer base of last year. 
(NF)