Sri Lanka Tourism to market Kataragama pageant

by Shirajiv SIRIMANE

For the first time Sri Lanka Tourism has decided to market the Kataragama pageant to the international market.

Director General, Ministry of Tourism, S. Kalaiselvam said that only the Kandy Perahera was marketed in an organized manner to woo international tourists.We have noticed there is a growing interest from Indian tourists to visit Kataragama and there is also a sharp increase of Indians to watch this pageant, he said.

Due to this Sri Lanka Tourism hopes to market the Kataragama Perahera to be held in June especially to the Indian market.

"We would be conducting several promotions to the Indian market from next month," he said.

He also said with peace in the horizon tourist arrivals to the country are picking up. "We hope to see over 500,000 arrivals for 2009," he said.