Sri Lanka tourist arrivals up 17.8-pct in 2015

ECONOMYNEXT - Sri Lanka received almost 1.8 million tourists in 2015, up 17.8 percent from the previous year, with India the main origin but Chinese visitors showing the strongest growth supported by traditional European markets.

December arrivals grew 15.4 percent to 206,114 from a year ago, on the back of a 20 percent rise in November, bringing total annual arrivals to 1,798,380, according to provisional statistics from the tourism office.

Indian arrivals grew 30.3 percent to 316,247 in 2015 from the year before, with the number of visitors in December rising 35.5 percent to 35,437.

China was the next biggest origin for visitors to the island, with arrivals in 2015 surging 67.6 percent to 214,783, including those from Hong Kong and Macau.

Chinese arrivals grew 52.3 percent to 15,843 in December 2015 from a year ago, the data showed.

The number of visitors from traditional Western European markets grew 15.3 percent to 552,442 in 2015 from the year before.

Arrivals from the United Kingdom rose 12.3 percent to 161,845 in 2015, with December arrivals up 17.3 percent to 18,762 while the number of visitors from Germany rose 12.5 percent to 115,868.

But arrivals from Eastern Europe fell, owing to political and currency problems, with visitors from Russia down 11.3 percent to 61,846 in 2015 from the previous year.

Sri Lanka small investors get preference in People's Insurance IPO

ECONOMYNEXT – Retail individual investors, mutual funds and employees would be given full allotments of shares in the initial public offer by Sri Lanka's People's Insurance, a unit of listed People's Leasing.

In the non-retail investor category, 190 applications for 1.8 million shares of up to 13,200 shares each would be allotted in full, a stock exchange statement said.

It said there were 390 applicants for 340 million shares who would be given a minimum of 13,200 shares plus 11.5 percent of the shares applied for over and above 13,200 shares.

The People's Insurance IPO offering 50 million shares at 15 rupees each to raise 750 million rupees was oversubscribed on the opening day itself.

Sri Lanka Singer takes control of group unit

ECONOMYNEXT – Singer (Sri Lanka) has bought a controlling 83.55 percent stake in Singer Industries (Ceylon) at 206 rupees a share from its parent Singer (Sri Lanka) BV, as part of a group restructuring, a stock exchange statement said.

The stake of 3.2 million shares of Singer Industries (Ceylon) held by Singer (Sri Lanka) BV, changed hands in an off-the floor negotiated deal.

Singer (Sri Lanka) said the deal, worth 662 million rupees, would not give rise to a mandatory offer with Singer (Sri Lanka) being a subsidiary of Singer (Sri Lanka) BV and the transfer being between ‘parties acting in concert’.

Singer group has said that as part of a revamp of its Asian operations, Singer (Sri Lanka) BV, the parent firm of Regnis (Lanka), Singer Industries (Ceylon) and Singer (Sri Lanka) will sell its controlling stakes in Regnis (Lanka) and Singer Industries (Ceylon) to Singer (Sri Lanka).

Sri Lanka state bank, regulator to take-over troubled primary dealer

ECONOMYNEXT - Sri Lanka's Central Bank and a state-run bank will take-over Entrust Securities, a troubled primary dealer in government securities if the firm does not meet a deadline to meet directions today, Governor Arjuna Mahendran said.

The company will be taken-over to protect the government securities market, if a re-structuring plan is not submitted, he said.

If there is fraud the action will be taken against the management, Mahendran said.

The shortfall of funds may run into 'several billions', he said.

There have been several complaints to the police by clients and the criminal investigations department is also investigating, Mahendran said.

Deputy Governor P Samarasiri said there had been discussion but so far no plan had been submitted. The firm had also violated some directions issued, he said.

Sri Lankan shares slip from 1-month high; financials lead

Reuters: Sri Lankan shares fell on Monday, after closing at their highest level in over a month in the previous session, led by financial stocks on concerns that the new budget proposals would hit their earnings.

The day's turnover stood at 1.07 billion rupees ($7.5 million), more than double the average daily turnover of 412.3 million rupees in the final two weeks of December, helped by block deals in Singer Industries Plc.

The main stock index fell 0.39 percent, or 26.88 points, to close at 6,867.62, slipping from its highest close since Dec. 1 hit on Thursday.

The market was closed on Friday for the New Year holiday.

"Banking sector is down as investors are expecting the new tax structure from the budget to hit banking profitability," said Dimantha Mathew, research manager at First Capital Equities (Pvt) Ltd.

"Retail and institutional investors were silent and nobody is willing to take a risk and enter the market," he said.

The index fell 5.5 percent in 2015, Thomson Reuters data showed. In terms of U.S. dollar value, Sri Lanka's market capitalisation fell 13.9 percent, but it performed better than the other stock index in Asia such as Malaysia, Thailand , Indonesia and Singapore.

Foreign investors sold a net 878.1 million rupees worth of equities on Monday. They sold a net 4.43 billion rupees worth of equities in 2015, compared to a net foreign inflow of 22.07 billion rupees previous year.

Shares in Ceylinco Insurance Plc fell 4.8 percent, while top lender Commercial Bank of Ceylon fell 0.9 percent.

Singer Industries, which accounted for about 62 percent of the day's turnover, fell 6.3 percent.

Diversified shares also fell, with Aitken Spence Plc and John Keells Holdings Plc losing 5.9 percent and 0.5 percent respectively. 

($1 = 143.6000 Sri Lankan rupees) 

(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez; Editing by Anand Basu)

Tourist arrivals fall short of target

Sri Lanka in 2015 had to be content with lower than the targeted tourist arrivals effecting a minor blow to policy makers, promoters and the industry.

According to provisional data released by the Tourism Development Authority, tourist arrivals in 2015 amounted to 1.798 million, up by 17.8% over 2014. However the final tally was lower than the revised target of 1.8 million tourists for 2015. Prior to the change of the Government, the original target was 2 million tourists.

The 17.8% annual growth was also lower in comparison to the 2014 improvement of 19.8% over 2013. The failure to surpass the target was despite December producing a bumper tourists haul of a record 206,114.

The shortfall in the 2015 target as well as a lower rate of growth has validated tourism industry concerns over a lack of proper policy and marketing for the sector, as well as indecision. However officials noted the new administration is more focused on delivering in 2016 since a proper plan has been unveiled recently.

Last week the Tourism Ministry released highlights of the promotional plan of year 2016 which was formulated based on five key strategic objectives including. Attracting a target number of 2.2 million visitors with 26% annual growth (based on an 1.8 million targetted figure in 2015), increasing the average stay and increasing the average daily expenditure of a tourist to $ 200 and contributing to generate a total tourism revenue up to $ 2.75 billion will be the key performance measures.

In 2015, the best performing source market was China, producing an impressive 67.6% growth to 214,783 arrivals rising to number second position. China’s performance was on target and confirmed the early optimism expressed by Chinese Embassy officials mid last year.

India remains the biggest market with 316,247 arrivals, up by 30%. Arrivals from UK grew by 12.3% to 161,845 and from Germany up by 12.5% to 115,868. French tourists arrivals rose by 9% to 86,126. As a region, Western Europe continues dominance accounting for 552, 442 arrivals up by 15.3%. South Asia came second with 459,415 arrivals, up 24% followed by East Asia up by 29.4% to 362,857. Eastern Europe produced 148,458 tourists, but lower by 4% in comparison to 2014. The Middle East produced a welcome 10.6% growth accounting to for 101,066 tourists.

Full year 2015 tourism earnings are still not out yet. As per the Central Bank during the first 11 months of 2015, earnings were up 18% to $ 2.54 billion.

In its 2014 Annual Report, the Central Bank said to achieve the tourist arrivals target of 2.5 million by 2016 (the new Government has revised it to 2.2 million), an annual growth of around 28% in tourist arrivals is needed in 2015 and 2016.

It also highlighted the need to accommodate the expected number of tourist arrivals, saying tourist hotel projects which are in the pipeline have to be completed adhering to the stipulated time period. Further, this requires additional skilled human resources as the current output of trained workers will not be adequate to meet future demand. “Therefore, the human resource constraint which remains a major challenge in the industry, in the coming years, needs to be addressed immediately by the relevant authorities. Since new competitive markets have emerged in the global tourism industry, further measures are needed to attract more tourists particularly from non-traditional markets. Branding and strategic repositioning are also necessary to ensure sustainable growth in the tourism industry over the medium to long-term,” the CB Annual Report added.Kudos to Sri Lanka tourism from Condé Nast Traveler

Sri Lanka received a boost from popular US Luxury and travel magazine Condé Nast Traveler recently with the country being promoted as the second best place to visit in 2016.

In an article titled ‘The top 16 places to go in 2016’ Sri Lanka was tagged as affordable, uncrowded and relatively unexplored. It said Sri Lanka is an island nation that was long overshadowed by its Indian and Maldivian neighbours.

Australia bagged top spot as the magazine called it ‘officially the year of Australia’ while Mozambique followed in as third.

Condé Nast Traveler journalist Katherine LaGrave gave preference to the newbie in the Galle hotel scene in her brief piece on Sri Lanka.

“Colombo, the country’s seaside capital, is undergoing a cosmopolitan upgrade, while Galle on the south-western shore just welcomed a new luxury design hotel, Tri Lanka,” she said.

Tri Lanka is a luxury hotel located in Koggala Lake in Galle and boasts of being the first ever sustainable luxury design hotel in the country with ten unique suites.

The hotel has received accolades from ELLE UK, New York Times in 2015 whilst receiving praise from Financial Times and Sunday Times in 2014. Moreover LaGrave reflects that timeless ruins and surfs will surely lure tourists into the country. (SD)
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Two IT parks for Pallekele and Achchuveli on the cards

Sri Lanka would set two IT parks in Pallekele Export Processing Zone and the Achchuveli Industrial Zone Jaffna said Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrama.

Speaking to employees of the Board of Investment(BOI), Department of Mahapola Trust, Department of Import and Exports and Export Development Board (EDB) last Friday he said that in addition new economic zones would be set up in Hambantota, Kuliyapitiya, Kilinochchi, Meerigama, Trincomalee and Avissawella. The existing zones in Kandy (Pallekele) and Mirigama would be redeveloped.

The Minister said that through these zones foreign countries would be encouraged to set up factories with minimal red rape and allow them to re export.

Samarawickrama said that both Bentota and Pasikudah would be developed as tourism zones with each having around 500 acres allocated and Sri Lanka Tourism, EDB and BOI would have to develop them.

"Sri Lanka exports have been performing below expectations and we have to work hard to increase this by three fold in the next few years.Similarly, the Foreign Direct Investments too were not up to predictions and have ended up below US $ one billion. We must aim at a target in the excess of US$ 5 billion in the next two to three years.We must also understand that the global down turn, economic slowdown in China, US interest rates going up, problems in the Europian Union due to the influx of over one million refugees too had an impact to Sri Lankan exports and attracting FDI's."

The Minister said that Sri Lanka should also look at countries like India where there is a huge 1.25 billion population. "Thailand exports to India are around US$ 5 billion while Sri Lanka exports only account to around US$ 700 despite having an Free Trade Agreement with India."

In a bid to attract more FDI's and promote exports the Minister said he hopes to organize road shows in Tokyo, United Kingdom, New York and Europe in 2016.

"We must also look at more trade agreement with Europe, US and China," the minister opined.

Indira Malwatte, Chairperson, EDB said that dip in exports is a major concern. "However we have observed that due to economic crisis in most countries exports of India, Pakistan, Thailand too has taken a dip."

She said they are looking at increasing local exports especially in areas like manufacturing of rubber tyre, pharmaceuticals, boat and yacht building, tea and in service sectors like BPO and ICT. "We can also look at foreign investors for these sectors," she added.

BOI Chairman Upul Jayasuriya too endorsed that exports have to increase and said that while local apparel export value is around US$ 5 billion, Vietnam a country which got in to the apparel industry after Sri Lanka earns a export revenue of over US$ 23 billion.

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