UpdateChinese tourists flock to Sri Lanka despite strained ties
Derrick Wong's gambit is paying off. There's no stopping the rising wave of Chinese tourists in Sri Lanka even as relations between the two nations have receded from last year's high-water mark.
Derrick Wong’s gambit is paying off. There’s no stopping the rising wave of Chinese tourists in Sri Lanka even as relations between the two nations have receded from last year’s high-water mark.
“If politics affected tourism, there wouldn’t be so many Chinese tourists in Japan,” said the owner of Grand Beijing Chinese Restaurant in tony Colombo 3 neighbourhood of the Sri Lankan capital.
In February, China quietly replaced the UK as the second-biggest source of tourists after India with an 85.6 per cent year-on-year growth, outpacing the 11.6 per cent rise in overall tourist numbers. Last month, tourist arrivals from China again jumped 81.5 per cent compared to March last year. With that, Chinese tourists in the first quarter of this year have risen 84.5 per cent, beating all other nationalities.
The trend defies the strain in bilateral relations this year since January’s presidential elections, when pro-China Mahinda Rajapaksa was ousted from power. The new government sees big-ticket infrastructure projects funded by China and executed by Chinese companies as overpriced white elephants pushed through by the previous government to line its pockets, and is reviewing many of them.
If politics affected tourism, there wouldn’t be so many Chinese tourists in Japan
One project in particular, the US$1.4 billion Colombo Port City that was inaugurated by President Xi Jinping, has become a bone of contention since the new government halted it last month. While the government maintains the Chinese company started the project without the necessary documents, Beijing has repeatedly urged Colombo to respect contractual obligations and protect Chinese investments.