Survey Highlights - Hand Bill

8/3/2019 Survey Highlights - Hand Bill

1/4

Survey on Departing Foreign Tourists from Sri Lanka

September '08- February'09 Introduction:

The Research Division of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority conducted a survey of departing

foreign tourists at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) during the period from September 2008 toFebruary 2009. The main objective of this survey was to obtain information on visitor profile, travel behaviourand expenditure patterns and opinions and impressions of tourists on the levels of satisfaction they had while ontheir holiday in Sri Lanka. 3013 tourists and 1433 transit passengers were met through direct interviews byforeign language competent interviewers and a method of stratified quota sampling was used. The populationwas broadly stratified into 11 market groups i.e. UK, India, Middle East, Germany, France, China, Japan,Russia, Benelux, Italy and Scandinavia by taking consideration of their country of residence.

Highlights of Findings

(a) Tourists

ProfileThe highest respondents of the sample were from UK (33%) followed by India (24%) and Germany (15%)

respectively. The country of nationality and country of residence of respondent tourists indicated no vastdifferences except in the case of Middle East.

The number of male tourists who visited was higher than that of female tourists. India represented thehighest imbalance between female-male ratios of tourists' arrivals while female tourists outnumbered maletourists from Russia.

The highest number of tourists who visited Sri Lanka belonged to the middle aged group of 40-49 years.

By occupation, a highest proportion belonged to the upper and middle social classes and out of which two-thirds belonged to classes of Businessmen, Professionals, Executives, Scientists, Technicians andEducationists.

A large majority of tourists (61%) were on their first visit to Sri Lanka. The highest proportion of first-

timers had come from Russia (83%), followed by China (71%) and Middle East (70 %) respectively.

Majority of tourists had visited Sri Lanka only one time before (24%). Only 20 per cent tourists had visitedat least 2 times before.

The tropical nature of the country has had an influence for the highest number of tourists to make their trip toSri Lanka.

Nearly 81 per cent of the tourists' the main purpose of visit was holiday, while around 13 per cent came forbusiness purposes.

1


2/4

The first choices of the holiday visitors were Sun and Beach (59 %) and Historic Sites (11 %).

Nearly 31 per cent out of those on business purposes had been here on 'corporate travel', while out of those

who came for 'other' purposes, 62 per cent had come for the specific reason as 'visiting friends & relations'.

The main sources of information which influenced the tourists to visit Sri Lanka were recommendations of

friends/relations (41%) and the internet (24 %).

Travel Behaviour Patterns

mThe overall average duration of stay of the sample was 10 nights.

mMost of the tourists (31%) had made their travel arrangements about one month prior to their departure,while 23.31 per cent had made their arrangements before three month before the departure.

mMajority of tourists travelled either with their spouses or friends or relatives. Only 43 per cent touriststravelled with their spouses while 27 per cent travelled alone.

mAround 60 per cent of all tourists travelling to Sri Lanka made their travel arrangements through a touroperator/travel agent in their country of residence while 22 per cent have used the internet and out of which,87 per cent have used credit cards when paying for their travel. 32 per cent of the tourists used a package tourfor this trip.

mFor 80 percent of the respondents, Sri Lanka was the main destination.

mIndia recorded the highest number (27%) as the country that respondents visited before arriving to SriLanka. Maldives was the most popular country that respondents would visit after leaving Sri Lanka (28%)on this trip.

mThe most visited Asian country during the past 5 years was Thailand (32%). followed by Singapore (26 %),India (24 %) and Malaysia (22%) respectively.

mSri Lanka has been rated as a fair place in comparison to India, Thailand, Singapore, and China.

Attractions and activities

The most popular place of attraction within Sri Lanka for respondents was Colombo City (65%).Otherplaces in order of popularity were Kandy (65%), South/West Coast Beaches (48%), Pinnawela Elephant

Orphanage (37 %), Sigiriya (37%), Dambulla (32%) and the Hill Country (30%).

The most outstanding tourist attraction of the country was friendly and nice people`.

Site seeing and excursions were the most popular activities engaged by 58per cent of the respondents. Seabathing (53%), sun bathing (52%), shopping (52 per cent) swimming in the pool (51%) were the otherpopular activities engaged in.

Around 75 per cent had engaged in shopping while in Sri Lanka. A large percentage (98 per cent) of thosewho engaged in shopping was satisfied with their purchases.

Almost 31 per cent of respondents had used guide services during their stay in Sri Lanka.

Yala National Park was the most visited National Park which was 57 per cent.

2


3/4

Elephant was rated as the star of Sri Lanka's wild life by nearly, 62 per cent respondents were interested in

Elephants in Sri Lanka. While11 per cent were interested in Birds.

Only 7 per cent of respondents had been involved in corporate social responsibility or community social

responsibility (CSR) activities during their visit in Sri Lanka. Tourists from Benelux countries and Japanwere the highest contributors to CSR.

In analyzing CSR activities, nearly 17 per cent respondents engaged in social services while 12 per cent

engaged in religious and cultural activities.

Facilities and Services Used

A considerable proportion (83 %) of the respondents had used hotels for accommodation and 7 per cent hadused guest houses and rest houses.

117 hotels, 45 Guest Houses and 11 Boutique Hotels and Villas were recorded to have been used by

respondents. Out of their total number of nights in hotels a fairly considerable number of nights had beenspent at hotels in the South Coast (35%).

The overall rating of accommodation facilities used was either good (47%) or excellent (26 %).

The overall rating of facilities and services at the airport was either good (55%) or excellent (19%).

Car, Taxi, Limo, Cabs were the popular mode of transport for many tourists (52%).

Tourists' expenditure

The average expenditure of those respondents who had taken a package tour was US$ 974 while average

expenditure of non package tour was US$ 906.

Opinions and impressions

At least around one-third of the respondents had been approached by touts, beggars, beach boys, beach

vendors, street vendors or three wheel drivers about which most of the respondents commentedunfavorably.

A proportion of 54 per cent of respondents thought Sri Lanka was 'a beautiful tropical country' while around

45 per cent said it was a country with 'nice people'. Nearly 26 per cent had also heard that it was 'a countrywith political problems and violence'.

In their perceived images the expectations of tourists were in general either the same or have small

variations.

The majority of the respondents were either delighted (67 %)or satisfied (31%) with their overall Visit to

Sri Lanka.

An overwhelming majority of the tourists (78 %) said that they had an intention of visiting Sri Lanka again.

3


4/4

(b) Transit Passengers

The survey revealed that in general around 60 per cent of the transit passengers were Indians. Most of them

were expatriates returning to India or travelling back to their places of employment. The highest share oftransit passengers had arrived from India (44 %), followed by Maldives (14 %) and Middle East. (8 %)respectively.

Around 78 per cent of the transit passengers were males with slightly higher percentages for India andPakistan.

By profession, most of the passengers belonged to the Businessmen category (21%) while 12 per cent

belonged to the Executive category.

By age group, around 34 per cent of the passengers belonged to the age group of 30-39 and 28 per cent to

the age group of 20-29.

A large number of passengers (15 %) had stayed 6 hours on transit while 13 per cent stayed nearly 3 hours.

Around one-third of the respondents had left the airport during their transit period and out of which around85 per cent had used hotels as accommodation during their transit stay.

Nearly more than half of respondents (59%) had future plans of visiting Sri Lanka.

Around 34 per cent of the transit passengers had made purchases either at the airport duty free shops or

while outside the airport.

(c )Comments and Suggestions

A large number of tourists were of the view that the Airport environment was good. On the other hand theyconsidered that attitudes of airport and airline staff was not up to their expectations and the duty free shopsat the airport were considered too expensive.

Majority of comments and suggestions related to the hotels and restaurants revealed a lack of availability ofvegetarian food and also Indian food.

Comments given by tourists suggested the need of a better road and transport services for tourists.

Tourists were also concerned about the environmental pollution and stray dogs and cats on roads sides.

They too stressed the importance of highlighting the country's great history by renovating and upgrading thesites.

Some respondents were not happy about the availability of tourist information.

Research & International Relations Division

Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority

www.sltbstatistics.org4

Documents

Survey Highlights - Hand Bill