Whilst tourist arrivals have soared by 18% in the month of March to 157,051 and cumulative as at end 1st quarter to 478,838 with a growth of 13.6% theses numbers are not reflective in the overall occupancy of the formal sector which is worrying given that the formal sector pays all their dues such as taxes and levies as stipulated by the government which help us do global promotions voiced Chief Guest Rohantha Athukorala the Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau at the Ceylon Hotel School Graduates Association Launch of a Hotel show 2015 at hotel Taj Samudra.

Chief guest of Hotel show 2015 organised by Ceylon Hotel School Graduated Association (CHGA)

Athukorala, analysing the numbers commented that the Western European traveller has increased it's choice by 17.7% to 169,330 visitors with UK growing by 14.8%, Germany by 17.5%, France by 12.6% as at 1st quarter 2015 whilst china is catapulting at 84.5% growth and India yet the number one market with a growth of 19.6% said Athukorala. May be it's time that we did done focussed promotions with the formal sector to see how we can plough back sone of the money that they have contributed to the overall promotional fund said Rohantha Athukoraka the new thinking chairman of Sri Lanka tourism promotion bureau who has extensive public sector experience like at EDB, Tea Board, Industrial Development Board and also being a chairman of a pivotal export institution in the past. He acknowledged that there is a perineal debate if it's the large organizations or the SME s need to be assisted by government entities but I guess some hard decisions will have to be made to regular lies the occupancy of the formal sector to be in line with the informal sector traveller pick up voiced Athukorala.