Sri Lanka welcomes its largest-ever single Japanese tourist group with Kandyan dancers and, naturally, Ceylon Tea
There was an unusually large Japanese contingent walking through Bandaranaike International Airport this week, and for once it had nothing to do with an international conference, diplomatic delegation or infrastructure loan.
Two hundred and fifty Japanese tourists arrived in Sri Lanka on Monday in what authorities described as the largest single Japanese tourist group ever to visit the country.
They were welcomed at the airport with Kandyan dancers and presented with packets of Ceylon Tea, which is probably as close as Sri Lanka can get to saying ayubowan without actually saying it.
The arrival is more important than the ceremony surrounding it.
Japan represents precisely the sort of tourism market Sri Lanka should be cultivating: visitors with relatively strong spending power travelling considerable distances and interested in culture, heritage, nature and experiences rather than merely finding the cheapest available beach holiday.
Sri Lanka has spent years measuring tourism success principally by counting heads at the airport. Visitor numbers certainly matter, but what visitors spend, how long they remain and how widely that money travels through the economy matter considerably more.
A group of 250 will not transform the industry. It does, however, demonstrate the potential of organised higher-value tourism from markets Sri Lanka has not always exploited as effectively as it might.
The trick now is making sure they enjoy themselves sufficiently to go home and persuade another 250 to come.
And perhaps, before they leave, sell them rather more Ceylon Tea.
