Sri Lanka Tourism brings down largest contingent of travel agents from China to the country
Tourism authorities in Sri Lanka have brought down the largest contingent of travel agents from China to the country in a bid to woo more Chinese tourists.
The familiarisation tour ‘China Panda Travels Sri Lanka’ is organised by a local destination management company (DMC), Thambili Holidays, in collaboration with a key Chinese travel arm, Global Tourism, the state owned English daily has reported.
Accordingly a group of 103 Chinese travel agents and professionals from Chengdu, Shanghai, and Beijing, among other cities, are now on an eight-day familiarisation tour in various parts of Sri Lanka.
Outlining the purpose of this familiarisation tour, Thambili Holidays General Manager Thimira Rajarathna has reportedly said they intend to assure the Chinese that Sri Lanka is now safe for travelling whilst showcasing the same.
“We believe that recovery of the Chinese travellers’ confidence towards Sri Lanka will help to create a significant impact on our tourism industry as China remains the second largest source market. We want to reinforce the fact that the experience of travelling to Sri Lanka is just too good to forget,” he has been quoted as saying.
China is Sri Lanka’s second largest source market and brought in 265,965 travellers last year. China has over 150 million outbound tourists, with it increasing 14% year-on-year.
The eight-day familiarisation tour will cover all key tourist attractions around the island.
Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau, Kishu Gomes has welcomed the move by the private sector and insisted that China was a critical market that they are focusing on to revive the industry following the Easter Sunday setback.
OSL take:
Sri Lanka’s tourism authorities are engaged in an aggressive promotional campaign to woo tourists back to the country following the setback suffered in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday attacks. The government of Sri Lanka has already introduced a relief package to the tourism sector, which the stakeholders have utilized to upgrade their existing facilities. However, tourists have already started to the return to the country and several international airlines have announced plans to resume flights to Colombo. All these indicate that Sri Lanka’s tourism sector is once again returning to normalcy. Therefore, business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka’s tourism industry are once again on the rise.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/02072019/Z_3 |