Hotel Occupancy Rates In Sri Lanka
Sign at the Earl’s Regency, Kandy.
Srilal Miththapala has an interesting article in the Daily Mirror about the Sri Lankan hotel industry. While tourists arrivals are the highest ever, hotel occupancy rates are not the same thing. I’ve heard and he’s cited hoteliers saying that occupancies are actually quite poor. But this isn’t exactly what it seems. People may not be staying in big chain hotels, but they could be staying in guest houses and other off-griddier locations.
A study done by the writer last year and published under the heading ‘Tourist Arrivals – Food for Thought’, looked at the arrivals statistics in comparison with the foreign guest nights (FGN) in graded and supplementary establishments, as given by the SLTDA. FGN gives an accurate indication of the number of tourists who actually stayed in graded tourist establishments and this study revealed that of the total arrivals of 654,476 recorded for 2010, only 82% were ‘real tourists’ who stayed in proper hotels…
There does not appear to be too many such market signals of promotions and special offers, emanating from the lower category of hotels and smaller guest houses. This then could possibly mean that they are not doing too badly. A rudimentary telephone survey of a small sample set did seem to confirm this…
It appears that a larger number of tourists coming to Sri Lanka now are patronizing lower level, cheaper accommodation options. (Where have all the tourists gone?)
The author is clear that this is his postulation, hard stats on Sri Lanka tourism are not so detailed. But it is an interesting thought. I personally would never stay in or recommend a big chain hotel when there are so many great affordable guest houses and amazing boutique hotels. Big hotels tend to be the same wherever you are in the world, so to me it’s akin to staying in an airport. It’s also overpriced.
In addition to the guest house/boutique option, AirBnB has covered Sri Lanka pretty well. This peer-to-peer housing thing lets anyone rent out their home (or rooms in their home), and there are actually quite a few options in Sri Lanka. I haven’t used it yet but I’d like to.
All of these may drive hotel industry numbers down, but it could just mean that the hotel industry is changing. IMHO, for the better.
Posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2012 in Business, Sri Lanka, travel.
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Possible explanations include arrivals by Sri Lankan expats or friends of expats who either stay with family or in flats/short let houses where they can cook, rather than at hotels.
Courier traffic also helps boost numbers. There are guys who fly between India and SL hand carrying goods. A friend who’s in the airline trade knows of a guy who flies 6 days a week between India and SL carrying goods; electronics, gems and stuff from Sri Lanka, sarees and other stuff from India. There are usually several of them on a flight.
According to my friend the “payment” to customs is 25k per trolley, anything on the trolley can pass but if a second trolley is used that is a further 25k. This is apparently why one sees people walking in with trolley’s piled sky high. This accounts for some % of Indian arrivals, which is now the largest source of tourists.
Someone in the travel trade was suggesting last year that the numbers may be inflated by transit passengers being counted as arrivals.
Why am I not surprised when room prices in Colombo are now considerably higher than most of their South Asian counterparts? I have no idea on all-inclusive tourist deals here…speaking simply from when I book rooms in CMB for an overnight stay. I have a fantastic place where I always stay in Maradana and I stick with it. When you compare rooms in Bangkok with Colombo it’s laughable . Another policy MR and his cronies have fucked up. It was very different 4 years ago.
True about the room rates. I also don’t understand the logic, especially as it actually discourages people from visiting Sri Lanka when they can get a better deal elsewhere. Also, to be honest the quality of the hotels in Colombo is dismal. Colombo does not have one quality hotel that consistently gets good reviews on sites like Tripadvisor for example.
If this is true why is it so difficult to get a hotel room anywhere from September to April.