SLTPB wins awards at China Xi'an Silk Road Tourism Expo :

More Chinese tourists in 2016

Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau was able to receive two awards at the China Xi 'an Silk Road Tourism Expo (CXSRITE) 2016, held from August 26 to 28 at Xi' an Quijiang International Conference & Exhibition Centre, China. SLTPB received the awards for the ''Most popular destination'' and also the 'Best design Booth'. The first two days of the fair was open to the trade and public sector, respectively. SLTPB also organized a Tourism Road Show in Xi'an on August 24, to create an effective platform for networking between the two countries' travel trade and strengthening bilateral ties.

Furthermore, Sri Lanka also had the privilege of being the official partnering country of CXSRITE 2016 and the organizers of the event had a lot of value added online and onsite promotional activities to promote Sri Lanka Tourism. CXSRITE is the first tourism exhibition with a Silk Road theme. Sri Lanka Tourism participated in this travel fair with tourism industry participants representing approximately 20 companies. The purpose of participation was not only to represent the country, but also to plan strategies to attract more Chinese tourists to Sri Lanka, regarding the cultural, social and political ties between the two countries from ancient times. Xi'an has a strong connection with Sri Lanka, since it is the first and starting city of the ancient Silk Road. Therefore, Sri Lanka always has the potential of attracting more Chinese tourists, and it will help boost foreign income and the tourism sector.

In 2015, China's outbound market kept its momentum. The number of outbound tourists from China reaches 139 million, an increase of 19.5% per year compared with 2014. The rapid growth of the outbound tourism market will continue in 2016 and 2017 and the number is expected to exceed 150 million in 2016.

At the end of 2015, Sri Lanka has received 214,783 Chinese travellers, a historical milestone which recorded the highest number of annual Chinese tourist arrivals to the country. The current growth rate of Chinese market is 32.2%. Chinese tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka have grown year on year in 2015, to 68%, and there is high potential to promote the Chinese market to achieve a sizeable share of the annual target of 2.2 million tourists in 2016. The expected number of Chinese tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka in 2016 is 318,197. Up to August 30, around 190,992 Chinese travellers have visited Sri Lanka.