Sri Lanka hopes for tourist boost

Sri Lanka is planning a massive boost in its tourist accommodation to cope with what is proving to be a surge in business thanks to the 18-month ceasefire with the Tamil Tiger rebels.

The influx of up to 10,000 visitors from the UK later this year for a series of cricket Test Matches could also put a strain on the avaiable accommodation, the government believes.

The 14,000 or so available rooms are not sufficient, Tourism Minister Gamini Lokuge told reporters.

"We are going to create 3,000 additional rooms," he said.

About 1,000 of these are to come from converting bungalows built in the south and the central tea-growing district by the British during Sri Lanka's 150 years as a British colony.

Access

Sri Lanka's tourism boom is largely the result of the ceasefire signed in February last year, tourism experts believe.

For more than two decades most of the north was cut off, held by the Tamil Tigers as part of their campaign for a Tamil homeland and blockaded by the government.

The risk meant there was no incentive for outside investment in tourism, said Charmarie Maelge, director for the UK at the Sri Lanka Tourist Board.

But now the transport links are opening up, beaches like Trincomalee in the north-east, are accessible again and the government is trying to encourage travellers to start heading there once more.

The fact that heavy security is no longer the norm is also helping, with visitor numbers up by almost 30% from the UK alone in the first seven months of 2003.

Going home

The government has introduced incentive schemes to encourage people to add to the stock of rooms available for tourists, Ms Maelge told BBC News Online.

The industry is hoping for 500,000 visitors this year in all, she said, after managing 395,000 in 2002.

And the massive Tamil diaspora is starting to come home too, UK-based travel agent Gamit Amarasekere said.

"Last year there was a big increase in Sri Lankans heading back, thanks to people from the north who had not gone home for 20 years," he told BBC News Online.

This year, the interest from British people is picking up too, he said. "The forward bookings are looking very good."