In 2025, the Maldives missing the tourist arrivals target didn’t alarm the industry so much. For the first time, it had set a revenue goal of $5 billion, and it ended the year with about $5.5 billion.
Sri Lanka is heading the other way. In November 2026, its target for 2030 was $8 billion from four million visitors, or $2,000 each. By July 2026 the goal was the same $8 billion from five million tourists, or $1,600 each. Currently, a tourist spends about $1,360. “Tourism should never become an industry that looks successful on airport statistics while the businesses operating within it struggle to make money,” says Abdulla Ghiyas, who chairs Visit Maldives Corporation, the state company that markets the islands. Excerpts from an interview with Echelon:
In 2023, the Maldives saw what Sri Lanka sees now: arrivals rising while revenue and bed nights fell. What did you change?
Abdulla Ghiyas: We stopped talking about arrivals. I told the minister for 2025 we should set a revenue target instead: $5 billion. It was the first time the Maldives had done that. We ended the year at about $5.5 billion, even though we missed our arrivals target. What mattered was what came into our pocket.
Sri Lanka is preparing a Rs3.5 billion global campaign. How did you make your marketing money work harder?
Ghiyas: I am not looking to put up a billboard. We asked our high-end hotels who their biggest tour operators were. Then we ran more than 40 campaigns with those partners, including our first in Switzerland in 25 years. Every campaign had to show how many extra visitors it brought. It had to generate a return.
How should a country decide which markets to pursue?
Ghiyas: By what visitors spend, not how many come. China sends us the most tourists, but Russians spend the most, so Russia is number one for us. We are working with
Aeroflot, and S7 has announced flights. We want guests who stay longer. Western Europeans also spend more, because they travel farther. China has high-end travellers too. You reach them by working with tour operators and airlines.
What role should the government play in Sri Lanka’s tourism?
Ghiyas: Its tourism leaders must be orchestrators, not just promoters. Travellers do not care which ministry is responsible. They only remember how the destination made them feel. A tourism board can buy advertising, but it cannot market its way out of poor connectivity or inconsistent service. So aviation, investment, hotel and environmental policy must pull in the same direction. When they do, a country becomes very hard to compete with.