Travel

BELASIA serves as a catalyst in promoting Lanka in Belgium

The Sri Lanka Embassy in Brussels in collaboration with Sri Lanka Tourism held a week long promotion of Sri Lanka in Brussels last week, the programme was intended to be replicated in other European capitals. Centred on Sri Lanka's participation as the host country at the BELASIA annual travel fair which projects over 25 Asian countries as a tourist destinations, it included tourism and travel promotion, a Sri Lanka Food festival, performances by a Sri Lankan dance troupe and Sri Lankan lace, masks, handicrafts and gem displays.

Inaugurating the BELASIA on Saturday (20 February 2010) in the presence of Asian Ambassadors in Belgium, representatives of the tourist and travel trade, media and visitors, Minister of State of the Belgian Government Jos Chabert Recalling his three visits to Sri Lanka with fond memories, said he saw Sri Lanka as the "Paradise of Asia" and was happy to see it forge ahead.

He commended the sense of partnership generated by BELASIA to bring the East and the West together and saw it as an opportunity to learn from each other's capacities and advantages, to stimulate synergies and raise confidence in relations.

He hoped that this exposure of Asia in Belgium, this year particularly highlighting Sri Lanka, would stimulate the Belgians to visit these countries and build strong partnerships in the future.

Sri Lanka's Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union Ravinatha Aryasinha said Sri Lanka was honoured to have been selected as the host country of BELASIA, a key event in the tourism calendar of Belgium.

He said this exhibition could not have come at a better time, for having overcome both the natural calamity caused by the tsunami and the man made damage caused by 30 years of terrorism, Sri Lanka tourism was gathering unprecedented momentum.

Observing that in January 2010, tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka had increased by 32% over the corresponding period last year, he said "tourists to Sri Lanka had clearly voted with their feet".

He said Belgians from all walks of life and cutting across age brackets were regular visitors to Sri Lanka over the years, and expressed confidence that BELASIA would serve as a catalyst in further promoting Sri Lanka in Belgium, as well as in other parts of Europe.

The Managing Director of Sri Lanka Tourism, Dileep Mudadeniya said that there is an increased demand with the expected increase of air seats by the national carrier for Paris.

Sri Lanka Tourism will be able to recover the lost market share from Belgium in the past.

Europe has come back strongly with an overall increase of 36.3% in January 2010. Europeans always look for sunny, warm weather with diversity.

Sri Lanka will be the ideal destination for them.

It was extremely encouraging to notice the renewed interest of the Belgian visitors for the destination Sri Lanka. Also SriLankan Airlines got very positive feedback from the visitors on the renewed non-stop operations between Paris and Colombo from July 2 onwards.

Belgian travellers have always privileged travelling via Paris, either by train or coach and therefore this reinstated nonstop service comes exactly at the right time.

Especially for this occasion, SriLankan Airlines flew in a complete Sri Lankan dance troupe and handicraft specialists (lace and masks) and to complete the food festival taking place during the same week at the Radisson SAS hotel in Brussels, two Sri Lankan chefs were flown from Colombo to delight the Belgian public.

Robrecht Willaert who was appointed Honorary Director of Sri Lanka Tourism in Belgium at this event, addressing the gathering said Sri Lanka has gained a special place in his heart as he has been associated with Sri Lanka for the past 25 years.

PJ Hotels to launch two more mega hotels

The 505 roomed PJ 'Aboriginal's Beach Resort' in the East coast and 1002 roomed 'PJ Royal Line Hotel' in Hambantota are now in the concept stage of PJ Hotels Development.

'For us the time could not be better to go forward with all our hotel developments', says Chairman Prasanna Jayewardene.

'President Mahinda Rajapaksa has not emphasised tourism in the second phase of his Mahinda Chintanaya' Quite rightly as his focus is on all aspects of development of the people of the country.

It is left to entrepreneurs and private business to do the business of tourism while the government looks after the broad frame.

'The war with all its negatives and destruction has now given us the positive of only a basic tourist development which gives the opportunity to leap forward learning from our neighbours and new market trends to make us highly competitive'.

He said we should surpass the target of 2500 tourist arrivals by 100% to reach a target of five million arrivals by 2016, if we capitalize on the current positive trends.

We can have 10 million arrivals by the end of the decade in 2020.

The 10-day stay we are used to will drop to 2-3 day stays due to our future markets being regional.

The impact of this kind of numbers will be far reaching and almost every citizen will feel it, not only the Tinker Taylor and Candle Stick Maker.

Though the mega projects are our biggest developments except for one other tourism concept of our Chairman's which can only be described as huge, we have a number of other hotel developments in the pipeline which we are going forward. We are looking at all our current projects in the planning stage, to be completed by 2016 the year the President has set a target of 2500 arrivals for as a policy the PJ Hotel group will concentrate solely on Sri Lanka where we see the greatest opportunities and find the operating climate not only comfortable but also very conducive to us clarifies, Amara Galagoda spokesperson.

Oman Air begins operations to Sri Lanka

Oman Air, the national carrier of the Sultanate of Oman commenced flights to Colombo last week.

The flights to this destination were launched in November last year with four weekly frequencies between Muscat, capital of the Sultanate of Oman and Colombo. The President of the Muscat Municipality, Sultan Hamdoon Al Harthi was the chief guest for the launch celebrations.

Peter Hill Oman Air's Chief Executive Officer said: 'Sri Lanka has proven to be a welcomed addition to the ever expanding Oman Air network.

We have reasons to believe that our customers are thrilled with this destination, as Sri Lanka has everything a tourist wants to explore, experience and see'.

Together with the new A 330 aircraft that are deployed into this segment and the spectacular natural beauty that the place is known for, our valued customers can surely have an enjoyable holiday.

Our service to this destination is also viewed as a boon by many Sri Lankan expatriates working in Oman who have started using our services.

Sri Lanka is a place that can be visited the whole year round and is rated as one of the top tourist destination of the world.

With Oman Air's exemplary services and products, I am sure this will open up a whole new experience for the discerning travellers, especially in Oman.'

Oman Air will be offering the full connectivity suite (Mobile OnAir and Internet OnAir) on its commercial wide-body aircraft when it starts to unroll full mobile phone and wi-fi connectivity across its brand new Airbus A330 fleet, towards the beginning of March 2010.

The move will give passengers in First, Business and Economy classes the opportunity to make and receive mobile phone calls, SMS, use email and the internet and keep up-to-date with social networking media, such as Facebook and Twitter.

Singapore hopes increase in visitor arrivals

Visitor arrivals to Singapore may rise by as much as 30 percent this year, helped by an economic recovery in Asia and the lure of two new multi-billion dollar casinos, the government said on Friday.

Genting Group's $4.7 billion Resorts World opened in February, while Las Vegas Sands will partially open its $5.5 billion casino in April as part of Singapore's attempt to expand its tourism industry to diversify its economy. Singapore Tourism Board Chief Executive Aw Kah Peng told a conference the board is targetting a 20-30 percent rise in visitor arrivals to 11.5-12.5 million this year. She expects tourism revenues to rise by as much as 50 percent from 2009 to S$18.5 billion ($13 billion). The expected jump follows a poor 2009 when arrivals fell 4.3 percent to 9.7 million people.

Lebanon posts highest growth rate in 2009 tourist arrivals

Preliminary figures issued by the UN World Tourism Organization indicate that Lebanon posted the highest growth rate in tourist arrivals in the world during 2009 with a 39 percent increase from the previous year, as reported by Lebanon This Week, the economic publication of the Byblos Bank Group. In comparison, tourist arrivals regressed by 4.3 percent globally, by 5.4 percent in advanced economies and by 3 percent in emerging market. Regionally, tourist arrivals declined by 5.6 percent in the Middle East and increased by 2.9 percent in North Africa.

They increased by 5.1 percent in Africa, dropped by 5.6 percent in Europe, regressed by 5.1 percent in the Americas, and decreased by 1.9 percent in Asia and the Pacific.

Globally, Lebanon came ahead of Kenya, which posted a 36.8 percent growth rate in tourist arrivals, followed by Vanuatu with 29.6 percent, Myanmar with 17.8 percent, and Taiwan with 14.3 percent as the fastest growing tourism markets worldwide.Regionally, Syria came distantly behind Lebanon, as it posted a 10.4 percent growth in tourist arrivals, followed by Morocco with 7 percent, Bahrain with 4.3 percent, and in Jordan and Turkey with 1.6 percent each, while arrivals declined in Saudi Arabia by 29 percent, in Cyprus by 11 percent, in Israel by 9.7 percent, Egypt by 3.4 percent, in Palestine by 3.1 percent, and in Tunisia by 2.6 percent and in the UAE by 1.3 percent.

The United Nations World Tourism Organization projected tourist arrivals to grow between three percent and four percent globally and by five percent to nine percent in the Middle East in 2010.