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| Sunday, 16 November 2003 |
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Accolades for Tourist Board at World Travel Market Shirajiv Sirimane reporting from London The Sri Lanka Tourist Board (SLTB) won two awards at the World Travel Market which was concluded in London last Thursday. The SLTB was selected as the best institution promoting tourism in South East Asia by the organising committee. This award had earlier been won by India for six successive years. Secretary to the Ministry of Tourism P. Ramanujam said this was a result of the hard work put together during the last two years. "This award is also significant as it was given in appreciation of a government institution. The second award was presented to the SLTB by the Autism Awareness Campaign of the United Kingdom for the Board's care and concern for people with disabilities visiting Sri Lanka. This is the first time that this award scheme was introduced," he said. The annual spending power of people with disabilities in Great Britain amounts to 50 billion pounds. There are 520,000 autistic people in the UK including 90,000 children of whom 60 per cent travel overseas every year. It was also disclosed that tourist arrivals from the UK to Sri Lanka had increased with 67,500 British nationals visiting Sri Lanka last year. With the English cricket tour, this number is expected to increase. According to leading British tour operators, the present political climate would not have a major impact on the British tourist arrivals. "They know that this is only a political situation," said one operator. However, he said the cricket tour will not bring in British fans in large numbers as most of them had followed the English cricket team to the Caribbean. The United Kingdom, the largest European investor in Sri Lanka, invested 125 million pounds in Sri Lanka last year. However, this is a decrease from the 142 million pounds invested in 2001. In contrast, exports from Sri Lanka to the UK grew considerably last year. The main exports are garments, tea, fruits and vegetables. |
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