Sri Lanka Tourism: Good Time Ahead?

Sri Lanka is a very beautiful country for tourism. It has natural beauty and it has some very important historical places. If you are a fan of Buddhism then you should make a visit to this country at least once in a life time. There is no doubt that Sri Lanka has a huge potential in the tourism sector. In fact, tourism brings significant portion of money for the neighboring country Maldives. So, there is no reason that Sri Lanka should not be able to do that.

I found an interesting report about it: Sri Lanka Tourism Looks to Boom After War's End

I am optimistic that tourism can soon become a billion dollar industry for the country. The good part is that it not only brings foreign exchange but also generates a lot of jobs in different corners of the country.

Nepal to look to South Asia for Boosting Tourism

I always dream to travel to Nepal and Bhutan. Nepal has perhaps 7 of the top mountain peaks on the world and it is also the birth place of Lord Buddha. Well, I even live in a neighboring country of Nepal- Bangladesh. I know that many people from my country visits Nepal each year for tourism. Still, I have not noticed any significant effort from Nepalese government to attract Bangladeshi tourists. I mean, I have never seen any promotional activity in my city from Nepalese government.

I guess that Nepalese government officials and private companies were happy until now to have more tourists from Europe and America than neighboring countries like Bangladesh. Of course, a tourist from USA would spend much more money than I can afford to. The economic recession is hurting the tourism sector of the country and that is why, Nepalese decision makers are now contemplating on the idea of attracting more tourists from South Asian countries and China.

In fact, Nepal is going to promote its tourist attractions aggressively in some Indian cities to attract from visitors from India. In fact, the government has come up with a new tourism policy with the goal of diversifying the industry in the country.

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(This entry was originally published in March 2009.)

Tourism in India: On Course of Recovery?

Tourism sector of India is now on its way to recovery as the number of tourists from outside of India has been pretty much satisfactory recently. Due to global economic recession and last year’s Mumbai terror attack, the tourism industry saw a significant fall in the number of foreign visitors in the country. However, India has taken a number of initiatives to alleviate the security fear among the foreign tourists. In an attempt to promote India as a tourist destination, several road shows are now being organized in the countries like Japan, Singapore, Thailand, UK and US. As a result, tourism sector in India experienced 7.6 percent increase in earning foreign exchange.

Chairman of the Indian Chamber of Commerce, Aviation, Tourism and Hospitality Committee, Subhash Goel, has called for more support from government in this sector including high tax exemption. In return, Mr. Goel assured of creating millions of jobs in the country. Tourism industry has a target of earning US$275 billion and generating 40 million jobs in the country by 2018. However, to achieve these targets, government needs to focus more on this sector and make it more organized. More importantly, government should ensure security for the tourists.

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