Sri Lankan tourism officials want to facilitate A-List artistes to the country next year, Chairman – Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB), Chalaka Gajabahu said.

He said that there are fans of these artistes that follow them around the world. Swiftonomics refers to the significant economic impact of musician Taylor Swift. In 2023, Swift launched her Eras Tour, a global concert series that has set records as the highest-grossing tour, amassing over $1 billion to date.

The Eras Tour has notably bolstered local economies across the United States. Swift’s fans travel to concert cities, where they spend money on accommodations, dining, transportation, and merchandise. Beyond the U.S., the pop icon and her international tour have also made a substantial impact on the global economy.

“Now this is a complicated and expensive process. We need to work with the private sector. I feel that we need to at least try one event with an A-List artiste,” he said.

Gajabahu also said the country needs to link its main cultural events to tourism. He expects that around 100,000 Indian tourists will arrive for the Nallur festival in August. Indians have easy access to Jaffna with marine and air connectivity, he said.

SLTPB said that by 23 July, over 1.15 million foreign tourists had arrived in Sri Lanka. The country can record the highest number of tourist arrivals in a year if current trends continue, he said. Sri Lanka recorded the previous highest number of tourists in 2018 with over 2.3 million tourist arrivals that year, and the country earned 4.4 billion U.S. dollars from the industry, he said. Sri Lanka has earned about 1.56 billion dollars from tourism from January to the end of June 2024.

“We were on a high in 2018, but then the Easter Sunday attacks took place followed by COVID and the economic crisis. In 2022 only about 719,000 tourists arrived in Sri Lanka. But things have improved rapidly, and this year’s target is to attract 2.3 million tourists and we are on track. We also want to generate about four billion dollars from tourism in 2024,” he said.

Gajabahu said India is Sri Lanka’s top tourist source market and Russia is number two. Most Russian tourists arrive between December and March, he said.

“Australia, and Poland are in the top 10 tourism source markets too and this is mainly due to bloggers and influencers who have come here. China, which opened only last year, is already in the top five source markets. In the last two years, over 190 bloggers and influencers were invited, and these have had a great positive impact,” he said.

On average a tourist spends 180 dollars a day in Sri Lanka, but a tourist spends about 500 dollars a day in the Maldives. “We get the same amount of tourists as Maldives, but they attract a lot more high-end tourists. By 2029, we hope to target 5 million tourists. 2.5 million out of them will be middle and low income, while the rest will be high-end tourists,” he said,

Gajabahu said Sri Lanka only has 9,000 rooms for high end tourists, although the country has about 45,000 rooms registered with tourism officials. There are another 40,000 unregistered rooms in Sri Lanka used for tourism, he said

“So, we need to attract 5 million tourists and to make people spend at least 500 dollars a day. We don’t want to attract 15 million tourists like Thailand. 7-8 million tourists a year will probably be our upper limit,” he said.

SLTPB is launching an initiative to launch a tourism campaign in India, China, UK, France and Germany in September. In the next stage Japan, South Korea, West Asia, Australia, Scandinavia and the USA will be targeted for tourism promotions, he said. (RK)