Tourists have voted with their feet - Lankan envoy in Brussels

The 32 percent increase in tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka in January 2010, over the corresponding period in 2009 indicates that “tourists to Sri Lanka have voted with their feet”, Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha said.

Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union made this observation at the launch of the BELASIA annual travel fair in Brussels, Belgium last week.

Observing that Sri Lanka was honoured to have been selected as the host country of BELASIA 2010, Ambassador Aryasinha 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.

He 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 Sri Lanka Embassy in Brussels in collaboration with Sri Lanka Tourism held the week-long promotion of Sri Lanka, a program intended to be replicated in other European capitals.

Centred on Sri Lanka’s participation as the host country at the BELASIA which projects over 25 Asian countries as 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, handcraft and gem displays.

Inaugurating BELASIA in the presence of Asian Ambassadors in Belgium, representatives of the tourist and travel trade, media and visitors, Minister of State of the Belgium 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.