Mid to high-range tourists key demographic for Sri Lanka to target in Italy

ITALIAN Embassy Deputy Head of Mission Dr. Alberto Arcidiacono delivered the keynote address at forum on 'Winning and Retaining Italian Tourists' organised by the Sri Lanka-Italy Business Council

- 

ITALIAN Embassy Deputy Head of Mission Dr. Alberto Arcidiacono delivered the keynote address at the forum organised jointly by the Sri Lanka-Italy Business Council, the Embassy of Italy, and Cinnamon Life recently.

Based on the title 'Winning and Retaining Italian Tourists', the forum was also addressed by Italian Ambassador Damiano Francovigh, conclud-ing with a panel discussion. The panelists, moderated by Jetwing Hotels Director - Marketing and Development Heshan Cooray, saw the partici-pation of Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO) President Nalin Jayasundera, International Air Transport Association (IATA) Country Representative and Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) and Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) Chairman Buddika Hewawasam and Pekoe Trail Founder Miguel Cunat.

Following are excerpts of the keynote address.

With eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites, boasting a higher site-to-square-metre ratio than all its neighbouring countries, Sri Lanka is a true cultural and natural gem, and it is unsurprising that BBC Travel ranked Sri Lanka among the top 10 places to visit in 2025. Tourism, however, is a complex industry, full of opportunities and many stressors.

In 2024, 280 million tourists came to Sri Lanka bringing revenue of over $ 3 billion. In this context, only 39,000 were Italians, making Italy the 24th source market for Sri Lanka tourism. Just to give you a comparison, in the same year, the Maldives received over 134,000 Italian visitors. Other European countries with similar populations, such as the UK and France, saw 126,000 and 88,000 visitors to Sri Lanka, more than double or triple Italy's figures. Even the Netherlands and Poland, coun-tries with significantly smaller populations than Italy, had more visitors. Clearly, Italian tourism to Sri Lanka is below its potential and the opportunity for growth is significant.