Sri Lanka begins promotional campaigns among tourists from Bangladesh
Daily FT: As an initiative to attract more tourists from the Bangladesh market, the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) with the assistance of Sri Lanka High Commission in Dhaka and SriLankan Airlines organised a Familiarisation (FAM) tour for two groups of the Bangladesh Travel Writers Association (BDTWA) and Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh (TOAB) for an eight-day tour of the island period of 25 February to 4 March.
The visit coincides with the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh which falls on 4 March.
Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga welcomed the group on 25 February with the officials of Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau.
The group comprised 10 members of the Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh and six members being four travel writers and two photographers of the Travel Writers Association of Bangladesh. The groups visited Sri Lanka with SriLankan Airlines providing sponsorship of the air travel for all participants.
During the eight-day stay in Sri Lanka, the tour operators, travel writers and photographers visited a number of iconic and historical sites of the country including Sigiriya, Matale, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Ella, Galle, Bentota and Colombo city.
On 3 March, members of the Tour Operators Association and Travel Writers Association of Bangladesh had B2B meetings with 50 leading Tour Operators and Hoteliers and Editors/News reporters of Sri Lanka and discussed the way forward for further collaboration of two-way tourism promotion of both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Ministry of Tourism Secretary S. Hettiarachchi, SLTPB Director Marketing Dushan Wickramasuriya, and Presidents of the Tour Operators Association and Travel Writers Association of Bangladesh addressed the event. The FAM concluded with the B2B event.
The Travel Writers Association and Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh are scheduled to organise a number of promotional activities with the support of SLTPB and the Sri Lanka High Commission in Dhaka to promote Sri Lanka as an attractive destination among Bangladeshi travellers.
OSL take:
Sri Lanka continues to attract tourists from the region as part of leisure, cultural and heritage tourism. The island has recorded high numbers of tourists from neighbouring India and the numbers continue to grow. Bangladesh is a new regional neighbour to be added to the list. Sri Lanka’s tourism industry was one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the country when it was dealt a blow by the global pandemic. However, the industry is once again on the path to recovery and continues to record a steady growth in tourist arrivals to the country. There has also been an increase in business travellers to the country with Sri Lanka positioning itself as a growing business destination in the South Asian region. All these have resulted in the expansion of business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka’s tourism industry.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/25032022/Z_2 |