Tourism is catching up in Sri Lanka; and the island is slowly but surely witnessing an uptick in travellers and travel sector stakeholders such as international carriers making a comeback.

“Sri Lanka is a very popular destination for most of our foreign travellers – especially tourists,” Anand Yedery revealed, on LMDtv recently. Yedery is the Regional Head of Customer Travel and Lifestyle for South Asia, Middle East and Africa of Cathay Pacific Airways.

With Cathay Pacific returning to Sri Lankan skies following a hiatus of four years, he said the island can expect to welcome many tourists from Hong Kong, China and the Greater Bay Area.

And he explained that Sri Lanka’s natural landscape – including its beaches and unique wildlife – are among the lures for tourists.

“Our studies showed that there’s a keen interest in bringing back a lot of tourists to Sri Lanka; they’re keen to visit Sri Lanka,” he disclosed, adding that initiatives such as lifting visa requirements for some countries have also made the island more attractive to visitors.

He continued: “The traffic that would be coming into Sri Lanka will help the Sri Lankan economy given that tourism is one of its biggest contributors.”

Yedery is optimistic about the island’s airport infrastructure and ability to cater to the rising number of travellers.

He elaborated: “The Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) is one of the good airports in our region. I believe that there are opportunities for which I’m sure the airport authorities are doing their due diligence to ensure that they’re prepared to receive the increasing number of tourists arriving.”

And while inbound tourism is on the rise, outbound travel from Sri Lanka is increasing too.

Yedery noted: “When you look at markets that Sri Lankan travellers are travelling to – be it the US, Australia or Canada – we’ve seen a huge demand especially from segments like students, immigrants, and business as well as leisure travellers.”

He outlined how travel has changed drastically post-COVID: “A lot has changed especially in terms of what a traveller is looking for today. We’ve seen behavioural changes in travellers particularly when booking their flights – people have moved to the digital side. Many people are booking on websites compared to going through traditional booking channels.”

“We’ve seen significant opportunities when it comes to tourism – especially in niche areas like culinary tourism,” he revealed, adding that most of the demand is stemming from young travellers.

Yedery added that “similarly, adventure tourism is also picking up. We’ve seen that unique adventurous outdoor activities are something the younger population is looking at.”

He highlighted that while experiential travelling is trending, people are also travelling more: “A lot of people are now looking at taking more holidays. Some of the surveys we conducted showed very clearly that people are looking to take almost two international trips a year compared to the past when there was barely one international trip.”

“These are very encouraging signs coming out of the pandemic and we are very confident that travel will continue to be a key aspect of every individual’s life,” he said.

While post-pandemic travel opportunities are plentiful, airlines are also facing many challenges that will eventually result in steep overall prices.

Yedery explained: “There is a gap between supply and demand. There are challenges related to the supply chain as human resources still don’t meet the expected levels that we would like.”

“In terms of ground handlers or caterers, we’re yet to get the kind of expertise and numbers required to cater to the levels that we were handling pre-pandemic,” he lamented.

Other challenges vis-à-vis supply include high fuel prices, limited access to aircraft spare parts and overall gaps in talent – all of which will result in airline ticket prices remaining high.