• Says difficult to disclose number of arrivals as it was ‘not monitored’
• Notes final day saw 2,500 visitors, of which 2,000 were locals 

Sri Lanka Tourism is neither willing to divulge the exact amount of funds it spent on developing the FIFA Fan Zone in Negombo for tourists in hope of attracting FIFA World Cup 2022 spectators from Qatar, nor able to disclose the number of arrivals for this particular zone, The Morning Business learnt. 

Speaking to The Morning Business yesterday (19), Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Chair Chalaka Gajabahu stated: “In terms of overall cost, I cannot reveal the figures, because there was a private sector engagement as well, in terms of sponsorship.”

He said he was unsure whether he could reveal exact figures because there were two sides contributing to the said campaign. Gajabahu added that in terms of the Return on Investment (ROI), he was similarly unable to provide any information, saying: “There is no direct ROI.” 

ROI is a mechanism in evaluating the profitability of an investment or comparing relative to the cost of investment.   

He instead elaborated that the FIFA Fan Zone campaign was one of the four “marketing PR campaigns” scheduled for December to counter the negative media publicity the country had received due to the prevailing economic crisis and enable the attraction of tourists to generate much-needed foreign exchange inflows.

“It is because the biggest problem Sri Lanka Tourism has faced in conducting business-to-business and business-to-customer promotions is that the consumers think we are struggling, as we don’t have petrol, diesel, or medicine.”   

He also noted that no visitor was charged to enter the FIFA Zone premises.

Responding to the inquiry made by The Morning Business regarding the number of tourist arrivals generated by the FIFA Zone, Gajabahu said: “We can’t disclose the exact number, because the number of arrivals exclusively for the FIFA Zone was not monitored.”

During its first week from 1-7 December, the Zone was closed off due to the rainy climate; however, it saw crowds gather during the quarter-final, semifinal, and final stages of the World Cup. On the final day of the World Cup, the Fan Zone hosted around 2,500 people, which included about 2,000 locals and 200-300 foreigners, according to Gajabahu, who added that around 750-1,200 people were in attendance during the semifinals.

The Morning Business also spoke to Sri Lanka Convention Bureau Chairman Thisum Jayasuriya on Sunday (18), who had a similar stance on the matter. 

He said: “There were inquiries from India, the Maldives, Dubai, and Doha. We cannot divulge exact figures because what we know is the number of people who had entered Sri Lanka and the occupancy of the Negombo hotels. Basically, the Negombo hotels saw occupancy over 60% of booking capacity.”

Jayasuriya stated that SL Tourism could not reveal exactly how many tourists visited Sri Lanka for this particular event, as tracking this figure would prove difficult, and only the total arrivals from the time the Fan Zone was commenced could be recorded.