Embassy initiated US tour group arrives

by Shirajiv SIRIMANE

A group of 25 tourists from USA arrived in Sri Lanka, through an initiative by the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Washington for the first time.

The initiative 'Signature tour with Ambassador' saw the group spending 10 days in Sri Lanka and visiting key locations of interest in Sri Lanka.

Christopher Wang from the US Department of Justice said that they were very happy with the positive transformation the country is going through."This development is evident from the moment we touched down at the Colombo airport and I would really love to see where Sri Lanka would be in 10 years," he said.

He said the forward thinking which initiated this mass transformation is a step in the right direction.

William Bowling from Worldwide Film Production who was also a member of the team said that he visited the newly built Ranmihitanne film village in Hambantota and was amazed with the world class facilities it offered. "This is truly an international master piece," he said.

He also said Sri Lanka has a lot to offer to the international film fraternity as well as the advertising industry to shoot commercials in the country. "In addition to the high class hotels the country also offers good architecture in buildings in the hill country and in Galle which would be positively reviewed by the international film industry," he said.

He also said that travelling to Sri Lanka is not a major issue as film crews travel even longer destinations.

Ambassador of Sri Lanka to USA, Jaliya Wickramasuriya said that this is a high profile group and their first hand travel experience in Sri Lanka would help them to promote Sri Lanka in a more aggressive manner and would help to increase the number of US tourists to Sri Lanka.