Tourist arrivals up 20 per cent

by Shirajiv SIRIMANE

The Ministry of Tourism has worked out a plan to attract more pilgrims from Western countries to Sacred areas in the island.

Director Sri Lanka Tourism, S. Kaleselvam said that Ministry of Tourism has decided to include the Nallur festival as one of their calendar events each year giving it a wide publicity through their regional offices and through travel agents. “In addition we will also request SriLankan Airlines and other similar bodies to promote this globally,” he said.Plans are also under way to promote this event among the Tamil diaspora especially in Canada and Australia.Nearly 500 of the Tamil diaspora including 300 from London attended the Nallur festival this year. This is in addition to the 400,000 Sri Lankans who attended the event.” We expect this number to reach over 5,000 next year,” he said. Over 1,000 tourists too are expected to attend the event next year.

He said that transport for Jaffna was not a major issue as the Air Force passenger air arm, Heli Tours, along with Expo Aviation and Air Deccan launched flights. There were around eight flights per day during the season.By next year there would be air conditioned bus services in addition to direct trains.

He said that one of the biggest problems they faced was providing accommodation as there were only around 50 hotel rooms in Jaffna. “To iron out this we have introduced a home stay concept where residents who register with the Sri Lanka Tourism would be allowed to host tourists,” he said.Commenting on the tourist arrival he said that they are reaping the benefits of peace with arrivals last month increasing by over 20 percent. He said that the industry went through a bad patch in the first six months due to the war but it has now recovered. “We expect to pass the US $ 430 million revenue mark this year with around 430,000 arrivals,” he said.The Ministry would also promote the heritage tourism concept as in India and have already brought down Indian journalists for this purpose. Road shows would also be conducted in Bangalore, Ahamadabad and Bombay from 7 to 12 September.