travel

South Asian countries to develop subregional tourism

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $2 million grant to promote sustained dialogue among the governments of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka to develop an updated subregional tourism plan, streamline cross-border tourist movements, formulate and implement a marketing campaign, and build the capacities to protect and manage the subregional heritage and tourism growth.

South Asia is one of the poorest regions of the world.

However, it has rich and diverse natural and cultural heritage areas as well as major Buddhist sites, making it a Buddhist heartland.

The ADB grant will be sourced from the Regional Cooperation and Integration Fund under ADB's Regional Cooperation and Integration Financing Partnership Facility.

The five governments will contribute $400,000 to cover the costs of counterpart staff, accommodation and facilities to be used during the two-year period to complete the project.

"The region has tremendous potential to develop tourism that can be used to expand economic opportunities, generate employment and raise incomes, particularly for the subregion's poor," said Principal Urban Development Specialist at ADB's South Asia Department G�lfer Cezayirli.

The objective of an integrated tourism plan is to link the complementary tourism attractions found in each country that otherwise might not be sufficient to attract a high level of tourist arrivals if promoted as individual destinations.

The technical assistance will complement a forthcoming ADB-supported investment project that will support high-priority investments along the selected destinations in the subregion.

Together with the investment project, the technical assistance will enhance the positioning of the subregion in both intraregional and international markets as one of the world's leading destinations for spiritual, nature and culture-based tourism.

It is expected that by the end of the technical assistance and the project, the number of tourism arrivals in the subregion will have increased by 8% every year, and the average length of stay of tourists will have extended by one to four days.

Emirates' Business Rewards for SMEs

Emirates Airline's Business Rewards, its innovative online-based reward program tailor-made for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), is now available in Sri Lanka, following its roll out to 55 countries across Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, and the Americas.

Business Rewards offers SMEs the opportunity to benefit from employee flights.

Each time a registered employee books an Emirates flight through Business Rewards, the business earns Business Rewards Miles while the individual traveller continues to earn Miles from Skywards, Emirates' frequent flyer program. The company can then redeem accumulated Business Rewards Miles against future flights.

In addition to reward miles, the Emirates Business Rewards program also provides a convenient online portal for administrators in SMEs to manage employee travel on Emirates Airline.

The company must register with Business Rewards in the country where it is located, but it can accumulate miles for travel undertaken by employees at all branches into one central account.

Emirates Area Manager Sri Lanka and Maldives Chandana de Silva said, "Small and medium-sized businesses represent a significant segment of the market in Sri Lanka.

The challenging economic environment makes any saving on recurrent expenditure like overseas travel relevant for business.

We are confident that our Business Rewards scheme will be welcomed by all of our corporate customers in Sri Lanka." Group Managing Director, Kellett and Singleton, and one of Emirates' Business Rewards members in the UAE Rohan Shetty said, "Business Rewards demonstrates that Emirates is committed to constantly improve how we do business with them.

"We are considering using the Business Reward miles as a staff incentive.

R P C Global Travels holiday packages

R P C Global Travels are offering a choice of exciting holiday packages with special festive benefits.

During the season, all customers who buy air tickets, local or overseas holidays from R P C Global Travels get a 10% discount on mattresses, furniture and attire at all Arpico Supercentres and Superstores. The discount is available up to mid-February '09. In addition, Arpico Privilege members, earn privilege points.

Holidaymakers who use Standard Chartered Credit Cards can settle the bill from three to twelve months and enjoy the advantage of celebrating without the burden of having to pay a lump sum immediately.

Temporary changes in SriLankan's flight schedule

SriLankan Airlines' flight schedule is undergoing several temporary changes, as the airline introduces new aircraft and retires four older ones in its narrow-body fleet.

Two new Airbus A320 aircraft arrived on November 30 and the second is due this month. Two more aircraft are due to arrive and until then the airline will temporarily suspend services to four of its less popular destinations - Calicut, Cochin, Coimbatore and Hyderabad from January 15, until the end of the winter season. SriLankan will continue to serve all other destinations in its route network.

The airline recently commenced operations to Rome to cater to the Sri Lankan community in Italy, and also to generate tourist traffic to Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

The two newly acquired aircraft will join the fleet after painting of exteriors in SriLankan's colours which is now being carried out by SriLankan Engineering at the Bandaranaike International Airport.

In India the airline continues to serve major destinations including its political capital New Delhi, commercial capital Mumbai, and its IT capital Bangalore. It will also maintain a major presence in Tamil Nadu, the state with the closest links to Sri Lanka, through its 15 flights a week to Chennai, and daily flights to Trichy.

The suspension of operations to these four Indian cities will not affect the country's tourism, export industry or its travelling public.

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