Flight bookings made for travel to Sri Lanka during the coming five months are 1.3% ahead of where the country was at the same time last year, a presentation given by ForwardKeys to delegates at the Asian Hotel and Tourism Investment Conference in Sri Lanka revealed.
“More in-depth analysis shows a choppy pattern. Bookings for December and January are respectively 3.5% and 4.1% ahead but February and March are 9.8% and 21.3% behind. April is 76.9% ahead but this number needs to be viewed with caution because April is 4 months off and booking numbers are consequently relatively low. The likely reason for the substantial variation is that the Easter holiday season falls later in 2017.”
Whilst forward bookings overall appear somewhat lackluster, within them are a couple of particularly encouraging signs. First, forward bookings for Chinese New Year (Jan 27 - Feb 2) are 12% ahead.
The presentation also revealed that there appears to be a turnaround in enthusiasm of Russians to visit Sri Lanka, as a trend of falling monthly visitor numbers throughout 2016 is being replaced by a surge of interest.
ForwardKeys, Director of Business Development, APAC, Jameson Wong, said that Sri Lanka deserves congratulations on a tremendous year for attracting visitors.
He also added that in a competitive environment, continued effort will be needed to keep up the impressive rate of growth.
(IH)
0 comments: