Coping With Sri Lanka's Massive Tourism Boom

The good news is that Sri Lanka is now one of the fastest growing holiday destinations in the
entire world. That’s where the good news ends, because Sri Lanka is now facing a huge
under-supply of hotel rooms, which means that rates for all grades of properties are currently
well above international levels.
Amazingly, and despite these rates, Sri Lanka’s hotels are full to the brim. Unless you book
early it is difficult to get rooms in the better hotels during the peak holiday periods. Rates are
expected to go up even further for the next few years at least until the big hotel chains develop
resorts and other major hotel projects come on stream.
Obviously people still want to come to Sri Lanka despite these rates because it is becoming
one of the top tourist destinations in the world. It is truly a country of immense natural beauty
with a very ancient and interesting culture. The people are also pretty friendly too, which is
another major asset that the island has.
Its difficult to get a bargain holiday to Sri Lanka anymore, but there are some smart ways to
save on cost, and these are elaborated by me in detail below:

Issues To Bear In Mind When Visiting Sri Lanka

With an enormous, sudden influx of tourists to the island, tourism resources are being
stretched and prices of everything from hotel rooms to vehicles to meals are rising rapidly. As
a result, there is a huge shortage of hotel rooms, good quality vehicles, experienced tour
guides and the country is still saddled with below-par tourist facilities.
Also, the country’s infrastructure such as roads and railways are far below what many clients
expect having paid a premium price for their tropical holiday. There is only one expressway in
Sri Lanka from Colombo to Galle (though more are in the pipeline). It therefore takes a whole
lot longer than you may think to travel between locations. Thankfully the countryside is so
beautiful, it is usually a highly enjoyable experience to actually travel around the island.

Do You Want Affordable Hotels?

Its hard, but they are still out there, especially if you are prepared to compromise a bit in
certain areas and are ok with using smaller hotels with less facilities. We have a database of
all the hotels in Sri Lanka, and we have negotiated some great deals with properties in most
tourist locations throughout the island. We offer these as a ‘Special Choice’ option in most of
our featured quotes. If you want to know more about these, simply ask your Tour Consultant,
as they have all visited them personally.
Using these properties usually saves a few hundred pounds per person on any quote we can
provide for a tour of Sri Lanka!

Do You Want Cheap Flights?

If you are really looking for a cheap flight to Sri Lanka and don’t mind a few hours in transit,
there are options with Jet Airways via Mumbai / Delhi and Gulf Air via Bahrain at highly
discounted fares. Talk to us about these options if you are interested as the fare saving can be
around GBP 100 – 150 per ticket, and often much more!
The vast majority of our clients prefer to pay a lot more for faster direct flights with Sri Lankan
Airlines, but we have no problem in quoting for Jet Airways or Gulf Air if requested.


Should I Believe Trip Advisor Reviews Of Hotels?


This is a tough question. We actually go ourselves and take a detailed look at every single
hotel we feature in Sri Lanka each year. This is because all of our sales staff are actually
based in Sri Lanka, so its no issue for them to regularly visit hotels constantly and stay in them
too if necessary to experience their facilities in full.
To be completely honest, we look at Trip Advisor reviews too as well as getting impressions
by visiting these hotels personally. More importantly, we also look at our own client feedback
about each hotel before deciding which ones to feature in a tour itinerary. We make changes
constantly taking into account all 3 factors.
There are a few hotels, especially the budget ones that strongly manipulate reviews. These
are places that themselves post bogus favourable reviews on Trip Advisor just to get
business. We know them but for legal reasons obviously cannot name them. Suffice to say
that if our staff are strongly insisting that a hotel is no good, then you probably know why.


Trip Advisor Reviews Of Tour Companies


We get around 30% of our business via referrals from highly satisfied clients, a large selection
of regular clients and from recommendations on Trip Advisor. This is a really huge percentage
for any company in the travel business. We are extremely proud of this statistic. This is one of
the main reasons why Elephant Island is one of the leading independent tour operators to Sri
Lanka. We cant win them all though, and there are a few unsatisfied client posts where people
have either been totally unreasonable in their expectations or where we must put our hands
up and say we got it wrong that time and we need to take a share of the blame.
On the whole though, I must say that most tour companies operating to Sri Lanka, including
our competitors are actually quite good. It’s a country where things usually go smoothly. In Sri
Lanka we don’t get the complex itineraries that are required for tours of India for instance. The
hotels are of a good standard (if overpriced) and health and hygiene are certainly a notch
above any other South Asian destination. The driver-guides in Sri Lanka are on the whole
excellent, which is the really vital thing that can ensure you have an enjoyable tour of Sri
Lanka. The quality of your driver-guide can basically make or break a holiday experience.
Fortunately our driver-guides are among the best in Sri Lanka, as any review search on Trip
Advisor will confirm. They have contributed enormously to the success of our company
through the years.


All The Benefits Of A UK – Sri Lanka Company


Finally, Elephant Island are a UK registered tour operator. We are members of ABTA, so you
can be 100% sure that your holiday is fully financially protected. If you book direct with any
company that is based in Sri Lanka only, there is no financial protection or any avenues for
redress should things go wrong.
As a company with offices in Sri Lanka, you however have all the benefits of dealing with tour
consultants who know Sri Lanka intimately. By living and working in Sri Lanka, all of our staff
are able to tell you first hand about every single place of interest, tour program or hotel we
recommend to a client as part of a holiday proposal. They have all personally visited just about
every single hotel and attraction in the island!
Whats more, we are also rapidly bringing our ground handling arrangements in-house. This
means that there will be no third parties involved in co-ordinating your holiday arrangements,
which is extremely rare in Sri Lanka. You will be taken care by Elephant Island staff all the
way through from start to finish!
Hope the above helps, and as a totally hands-on person, I can assure you that anyone is free
to contact me in person about any issue related to our company or travel to Sri Lanka

Your Tour Consultants To Sri Lanka

ronnie@elephant-island.com
Ronnie Johnson
Managing Director