Travel / Lifestyle

Fisheries Harbour Corp, Deccan Aviation to develop marine tourism

by Surekha Galagoda

The Fisheries Harbour Corporation entered into an agreement with Deccan Aviation Lanka (Pvt) Ltd to develop Marine tourism in the country.

The Fisheries Harbour Corporation has 12 harbours around the country and there is unutilised land around every harbour. Under the agreement we have given permission for Deccan Aviation to land their choppers and to take the tourists to the hotels from the relevant site, said Chairman, Fisheries Harbour Corporation Asanka Abeygunasekera.

He said that Deccan Aviation will pay a fee to the Fisheries Harbour Corporation for each landing. We will start with four harbours and expand as the demand increases. The first four harbours Deccan choppers will fly to are Panadura, Kirinda harbour near Yala and Puranawella near Tangalle and Kalpitiya in the west coast.

This is the first step to develop marine related tourism. At present international yachts bypass Sri Lanka.

This is the first step in attracting international yachts to Sri Lanka. If we tap these niche markets we can get a higher revenue from tourism, said Abeygunasekera.

He said that we don't have a single Marina at present. In countries such as the Maldives and Indonesia there are several Marinas and there is a separate tourism market for this segment which is a very lucrative business.

He said the Fisheries Harbour Corporation has taken steps to declare exclusive Harbour zones where the harbours are located. This has been approved by the cabinet. Under this project all fishing related businesses will be in the exclusive zone.

This will help the fishing community and a share of the profits generated by the projects will be set apart for the benefit and welfare of the fisherfolk.

These projects will be established as joint ventures between the Fisheries Harbour Corporation and the relevant investors.

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Singapore Airlines launches more flights

Singapore Airlines has increased the number of flights to Auckland, Hong Kong and Bangalore to cater to higher travel demand, especially over the Christmas and New Year periods.

Singapore Airlines will fly additional frequencies between Singapore and Auckland, New Zealand, during the year-end period.

From early-December 2006, the Airline will operate an additional two weekly flights on Thursdays and Saturdays, between the two cities.

Frequencies will be further increased with an extra weekly flight, operating on Fridays, between early-January 2007 and end-February 2007.

These supplementary flights will boost the number of weekly flights to Auckland between December 2006 and February 2007 from 10 to 13.

In addition, Singapore Airlines will operate three additional weekly flights between Singapore and Hong Kong each week. The extra flights, which operate on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, will continue till mid-January 2007.

Meanwhile, Singapore Airlines junior flyers can enjoy their special meal onboard and bring it home too!

For December, the Airline will be serving children's meals in unique lunch boxes adorned by the ever-popular cartoon character, SpongeBob SquarePants.

Available on all flights from Singapore (with the exception of the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur service), the meal box will contain favourites such as spaghetti and chicken meatball, with snacks such as Oreo cookies and Ribena drink.

Our junior travellers can take their lunch-boxes home with them at the end of the flight.

To complete the junior inflight experience, Singapore Airlines will also be giving out the well-loved Nickelodeon plush toys and activity kits from the Barnyard movie and the Rugrats animation series.