Sri Lanka tourism industry to return to pre COVID figures by 2024
The World Tourism Organization (WTO) expects the tourism industry to return to its pre COVID figures by end 2023 while Sri Lanka too is expected to reach this level next year world’s largest adventure travel company Australian-based Intrepid Travel, CEO James Thornton said.
“We are upbeat on the tourism sector in Sri Lanka as we see an increase of arrivals and more flights touching down in Sri Lanka.”
Intrepid Travel also plans to grow further in Sri Lanka, with its Colombo team already having doubled in just one year to become its largest Intrepid Travel company from their network globally with more than 230 staff and tour leaders. Intrepid has also committed to further growth in Colombo, with an additional 40 roles being recruited in Sri Lanka this year. Intrepid Colombo’s Centre of Excellence supports the global company through a variety of roles, including engineering, technology architects, human resources, finance and customer service. In a further commitment to Sri Lanka, Intrepid plans to launch a new paid graduate internship program in 2023. The Intrepid Colombo Future Leaders program will see 15 graduates working through a variety of departments over a six-month period. In a show of confidence and commitment, Intrepid’s top Management Team are currently visiting the country and meeting with the local team.
Managing Director Asia, Natalie Kidd said that they have over 40% ratio of women working in Sri Lanka and are happy with the team’s growth and achievements. Intrepid’s growth in Sri Lanka has largely been driven by technology and other support roles and as the world’s largest adventure company, it is also fully committed to rebuilding Sri Lanka’s tourism industry, including investment in international marketing campaigns. Intrepid offers 12 different tours in Sri Lanka and welcomed about 3,500 customers to the island in 2019.
Intrepid’s Country General Manager in Sri Lanka, Poornaka Delpachitra, said that talented ICT based staff are difficult to get as firstly they are going overseas and there is a huge demand among local tech based companies to ‘grab’ the rest. Intrepid is a leader in climate-conscious travel options and it is innovating in Sri Lanka by trialing the use of electric vehicles. The company regularly uses EVs for airport transfers and successfully operated two fully electric-powered tours in 2022.
Intrepid Travel is a world leader in sustainable experience-rich travel, with more than 1,150 trips on every continent and every is designed to truly experience local culture. (SS)