German tourist arrivals to hit new high
By Shirajiv Sirimane in Berlin
Tourists from Germany will be the largest European tourist arrivals
in Sri Lanka soon. Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Lakshman
Yapa Abeywardane who spoke to the Sunday Observer after the opening
ceremony of the ITB Berlin exhibition said that there were 55,000 German
arrivals last year and with the assistance of SriLankan airlines, they
could improve on this figure.
He said that the hotel sector was facing a construction boom and
22,000 star class rooms would be built in the next four years.
“Most importantly over 30, 000 of these rooms would be built in the
North and the East creating nearly 50, 000 new employment
opportunities,“he said.
He said that in addition to the rooms several other tourisma-related
projects such as golf courses, theme parks, shopping malls, Yacht
Marinas,taxi services and domestic airlines too would be added from the
leisure sector to the countries infrastructure.
The Minister said that Germans in addition to being long stayers are
also high spenders.. ‘‘Another advantage of the German market is that
they are repeats which helps to maintain growth in this market,‘‘ he
added.
Meanwhile, Chairman SriLankan Airlines, Nishantha Wickramasinghe said
that they would be making the weekly five frequency to a daily and this
would also help to increase arrivals. He said that Srilankan is the only
airline that operates direct flights between Colombo and Germany.
The Chairman also disclosed plans to once again add Berlin to their
radar.
This year over 50 Sri Lankan companies participated at the worlds
largest travel show ITB which saw a total of 11, 163 exhibitors and a
record 200, 000 visitors attending the event. It was estimated that
exhibitor sales from the event was over six billion Euro.
Pic: Shirajiv Sirimane
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