Marine Tourism Development in Sri Lanka
Sea Going Green
SavvY partner and director Natia Goliadze, together with partner company Sea Going Green, a consultancy that specializes in sustainable tourism, worked on Supporting Tourism Resilience for marine tourism development in Sri Lanka. The project was funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to support Sri Lanka Tourism Development Administration (SLTDA) in Marine and Coastal tourism development.
Within the framework of the project, the team prepared an overview of the tourism sector in Sri Lanka, as well as an analysis of the latest trends in global marine tourism.
This project’s goal was to make sure that maritime tourism develops properly, controlled, and sustainably to ensure significant benefits for Sri Lanka and support the government in realizing the full potential of marine tourism on the island.
One of the key tasks was the formulation of a demand forecast. The team conducted intensive market research to forecast the tourist inflow to Sri Lanka for the next 5 years. The three scenarios (base, optimistic and pessimistic) projected total tourist inflow to Sri Lanka. The report forecasted the number of tourists to coastal areas, with a special focus on target areas. The forecast also included the breakdown of tourists by marine activities.
The project also included the creation of profiles of key marine tourism service providers and an analysis of existing means of accommodation across the country and in target areas specifically. Aside from this, the project included primary research of service providers to identify key services and customer profiling.
Along with the essential tasks, the team identified the seasonality of tourist inflow in Sri Lanka and prepared an overview of marine tourism infrastructure. Detailed attention was given to yachting for leisure as a form of maritime tourism activity.
