China topped visitor arrivals in July with a performance 25,120 arrivals, a growth of 65.5% over the last year and a cumulative figure 119,000. Talks hinged on how the long-term financial sustainability of Sri Lanka’s tourism industry could be achieved by tapping into the top end of the two million Yunnan Province travellers whilst from the Chinese perspective typical Destination Marketing Companies (DMCs) could enjoy stronger ROI, said Dr Athukorala.

According to Wang Xiangyun, the Deputy General of Foreign Affairs of Yunanan Province, there are apparently two million travellers in the outbound market currently selecting a destination mainly in the South East Asian region, in places such as Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and, in the recent pas,t Myanmar and the Maldives.

These travellers are people working in the mining, biological research, tourism, energy and tobacco industries, which are all top-dollar employment-driven sectors, making the task of attracting a $ 250-tourist possible, she said.

The Sri Lankan team agreed on the strategy, which included a strong Sri Lankan team attending the Kunming Travel Fair in November this year. The strategy will also include a focus evening meeting with 500 travel agencies from the Yunanan Province, the launch of WECHAT and an equity building marketing communication campaign that includes the launch of the Sri Lankan Specialists programm on Yunanan Television apart from the partnership promotion with SriLankan Airlines and Air China, said Chairman Athukorala.

Sri Lanka is targeting 225,000 visitors from the Chinese source market for 2015.