Sri Lanka and Thailand discuss ways to increase Thai tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka
Officials of the Sri Lankan government and the Association of Thai Travel Agents have last week discussed ways of increasing the arrival of Thai tourists to Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka’s Tourism Development Minister John Amaratunga and the Sri Lankan delegation who attended the 2019 edition of the Thai International Travel Fair held in Bangkok, Thailand last week had met President of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, Vichat Prakobgosol on the sidelines of the Travel Fair.
The two parties had reportedly discussed ways and means of increasing the number of arrivals to Sri Lanka from Thailand. Thai travel agents had emphasised that relaxation of visa requirements will help increase arrivals.
Also, the Thai travel agents have pointed out that outbound traffic from Thailand to Japan increased by over one million when Japan granted visa on arrival to Thai nationals.
The inauguration of the travel fair was held at the Bangkok Convention Center at Central World Bangkok followed by a gala dinner at Centara Grand.
The event was attended by over 500 tourism stakeholders from around the world including Sri Lanka.
The Chief Guest at the inauguration was the Tourism Minister of Thailand while the Guest of Honour was the Tourism Development Minister of Sri Lanka John Amaratunga who received an enthusiastic welcome from the capacity crowd that was present.
Later on Minister Amaratunga had declared opened the Sri Lanka Booth, which was the cynosure at the travel fair.
Also, the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau had reportedly made use of the opportunity to launch a promotional microsite highlighting the Buddhist trail in Sri Lanka. The microsite consists of the main Buddhist tourism attractions in the country, meditation centres and facilities available to learn Buddhism in Sri Lanka.
OSL take:
Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is on a continuous growth path with many development programmes currently underway to further boost the industry. Sri Lanka has been identified as a destination for many reasons and the latest being the Buddhist trail in the country. The Sri Lankan government is looking at increasing tourists from Thailand through the new promotion. Being identified as the destination of the year for 2019, Sri Lanka is now the focus of many foreign countries. Therefore, Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is a hotspot for business/investment opportunities to be grasped by discerning businesses/investors.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/25022019/Z_3 |