‘Promoting Indian Tourism Is In Our Best Interest’

G T Jeyaseelan, head of commercial, SriLankan Airlines in an exclusive with Bhisham Mansukhani, outlines his blueprint for creating one of the world’s most sterling example of regional tourism - one that prominently features India

Why the emphasis on regional tourism?

If one were to observe all of the world's major regions, the quantum of intra regional tourism is overwhelming to the extent that it alone is capable of sustaining and augmenting local tourism driven economies. Not so if one cites South Asia. A mere 75,000 from Sri Lanka to India and a mere 100,000 from India to Sri Lanka. In Europe, more than 50 per cent of tourism revenue can be ascribed to intra regional tourism. I can unequivocally claim that India can alone meet all of the Sri Lankan tourism industry's requirements. SriLankan Airlines has been knocking on India's doors for the last ten years for more frequencies for a long time. Consequently, with over 66 flights out of India, we are the biggest international airline operating out of India and we are its immediate neighbour. I think there is a great opportunity here. SriLankan tourists had so far restricted themselves to vacationing in Southern India but that is now slowly changing. We recently launched a SriLankan Holidays Programme to promote India to SriLankans. The idea was initially a joke but I would not want to slight the initiative and we now take it seriously.

How does India then fit into to your airline's strategy?

The truth is that the national carrier of any country is incumbent to promote its tourism resource. Unfortunately in the case of India, that has not happened. SriLankan Airlines is more than happy to step in and help. We are currently working with Indiatourism in Malaysia and Singapore to promote India to the locals. It is part of a strategy to boost regional tourism. Let me cite an example for you. Male has been put on the international map by SriLanka as we promoted it as a sister destination and subsequently our tourism industries have been intertwined. We intend to do the same thing with India forming a sub-continental triangle that includes Sri Lanka and Male. Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh could also soon be part of the fray. Simply put, SriLankan Airlines absolutely believes in the spirit of SAARC and in terms of tourism, we believe South Asia can mirror the success of the European Union. In the early 1990s there was a declaration by all heads of state of SAARC member countries to link all capitals of SAARC. SriLankan Airlines is the only carrier in earnest that has gone a long way towards achieving it. We are now on the threshold of connecting to Bangladesh and Nepal. SriLankan Tourism is playing a huge role in the Kerala Tourism Mart (KTM) this year. We will be flying in 80 international agents at our own expense. We are also partnering with Tamil Nadu's state tourism board. We are promoting medical tourism to Bangalore. Now, promoting medical tourism to Sri Lanka may be a tad premature so we are focusing on promoting South Indian cities as key medical tourism destinations to Europeans. We have developed all inclusive packages in alliance with hospitals in Bangalore. Shopping is another major attraction that India has. Indians themselves have overlooked this. The price and quality of the consumer durables in India are almost as good as any. Another circuit which we are developing which is very popular with the Germans is the Saint Xavier's Circuit which trails from Colombo to Madras to Trivandrum and back to Colombo. There are over 70,000 Germans who visit Sri Lanka and presently about ten per cent want to travel this circuit. We are confident of driving traffic into this circuit many times over in the coming seasons.

What are your expansion plans for India?

Our expansion will be circumspect and piecemeal in light of constantly evolving dynamics. Our focus is tourism traffic. The volumes may not be as large and perennial as the labour market but it is high yield. Our focus on regional tourism stems from our accent on tourism. Last year we spent 600 million Ceylon rupees on promoting Sri Lanka alone. Tourism contributes over 80 per cent of our load factors.

Are there any fleet augmentation plans on the anvil?

Currently, we are poised to receive two more Airbus A320s and are looking to acquire another wide bodied aircraft as we will soon be commencing flights to China. Predicting future aircraft acquisitions is tricky since we had initially maintained that we would have a fleet of 20 aircraft by 2008. We expect to achieve that fleet size by 2005 so let us leave future targets to the way the market shapes up.