Sri Lanka Tourism wins award

Sri Lanka Tourism was awarded the 'Best Stall' at the travel exhibition, OTM Mumbai at the Bombay Convention and Exhibition Centre, Goregaon, Mumbai recently.

The Counsellor General for Sri Lanka in Mumbai Saroja Sirisena who received the award on behalf of the country said, "This is a big win for Sri Lanka and I admire the talent at the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau for developing a new identity for the country. We must build on this win and strengthen links with travel partners in India."

This initiative in the Indian market was to achieve the targeted 335,000 visitors in 2015 with the support of the private sector, said the Chairman Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Rohantha Athukorala.

"I commend the strong working partnership between the private and public sectors to build the image of Brand Sri Lanka," said Minister for Tourism and Sports Navin Dissanayake

According to industry experts, Mumbai accounts for about one-third of all outbound travels from India. Maharashtra is the top destination state for foreign tourist arrivals.

"Our push in each market is to position Sri Lanka as the 'Most treasured Island in Asia'. That is our single-minded idea," he said.

"This will be supplemented by programs for journalists and trade familiarisation tours from key markets. We hope to attract the top-end Indian tourists to Sri Lanka. We will also test new marketing strategies such as film marketing- which we are doing in the French market to be replicated in the Indian market," said Athukorala.

Over 2,500 participants from 70 countries, including 28 from Sri Lanka Tourism, displayed products at the show with SriLankan Airlines partnering the event. The large pavilions at the exhibition were from Sri Lanka, Turkey, New Zealand, but there was stiff completion from Mexico, Dubai, Japan, Thailand, Egypt, Nepal, Philippines, Macau, China and Argentina.