28.7%; little over 20% or little less than 30%?

According to a newspaper report, the newly appointed Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Board and the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Board has promised to bring in a minimum three million tourists to the island this year.

Contending that, quote “We achieved 2.3 million tourists’ arrivals last year, so exceeding three million which is roughly a little more than a 20 percent growth is doable,” unquote.

Should that happen, no one will really care that the growth at 28.7 percent over last year is actually a little closer to 30 percent.

With Sri Lanka voted ‘Best in Travel 2019’ by Lonely Planet; a ‘hot spot’ in 2019 by Contiki - a travel weekly that caters to millennials; the top emerging Asian Travel destination for 2019, as per a panel of five of the best renowned travel bloggers and influences in the world; named one of the top 10 places to visit in 2019 by the Los Angeles Times; the Sri Lanka food scene, nominated by BBC as the number one ‘up and coming food trend’ for 2019; Colombo named as the ‘must-photograph’ travel destination for 2019 in a study by Huawei, the seemingly endless list of endorsements, highlight the island’s potential to become one of the world’s leading travel destinations, where 2019 can yet be the year we break the three million barrier.

The appointment of a single Chairman to head both the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Board (SLTDB) and the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Board’s (SLTPB) somewhat restores the ‘status quo’, to that which existed several years ago. This may augur well, where the primary role of SLTDB is to choreograph the overall destination experience, whilst that of the SLTPB’S is to market and promote the destination.

Both must work in tandem and work effectively to overcome any ‘supply and demand’ conundrum - especially, where having rooms ready without creating demand to fill them will suggest that all is not right with the overall marketing/ promotion effort and spend.

What role does the Sri Lanka Convention Bureau play in our event industry? Sri Lanka is not new to MICE tourism but is it heading in the right direction? As a developing nation it has a long way to go before it can be a top MICE destination.

A key challenge is the number of conference venues which limit the number of events that the country can hold at a time.

Then again, having good conference facilities without any other tourist attractions such as sufficient entertainment and exciting activities would not make a country a top MICE destination.

There are several Asian countries that offer quality services and venues.

Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand are some of the countries that attract MICE tourism on a huge scale. These countries have been in the industry for much longer which makes the competition for Sri Lanka quite challenging.

Thailand for example saw MICE travellers grow from 5.2 million during 2012 to 37.2 million during 2017. One country that is paying serious attention to MICE tourism is Cambodia.

The Angkor COEX convention centre, together with the centres in Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville are slowly but surely positioning that country as an emerging MICE destination with great appeal.

Must-have credentials to be a MICE destination include easy access by air, quality congress centres, an adequate range of three - to five-star hotels, an attractive destination and surroundings, value for money, sufficient marketing resources and competent local professional conference organisers. In a nutshell, attracting top level international events requires the hardware of physical infrastructure, the software of people skills and a first-class service mentality. Does or will Sri Lanka have what it takes?