Valiant efforts to take tourism forward

After ITB success, Sri Lanka sets sights on Arabian Travel Mart

Sri Lanka Tourism is currently in the process of adopting an inclusive approach in the industry to cover all operators in the sector. The recently concluded ITB in Berlin was very successful and found many new agents who are ready to market Sri Lanka as a destination. s

At a recent monthly discussion by the Ministry, Tourism Deputy Minister Faizer Musthapha revealed that Miss Germany 2008 Kim Valerie Voight and the first and second runner ups of the pageant, are to visit Sri Lanka later this year with a television crew where they will travel around the country and air the programme in Germany. This will support the cause of the ministry to show the European countries that Sri Lanka is still a place for tourism.

His speech revealed that the Arabian Travel Mart would be held from May 5 to 9 and there would be a record of 27 local companies participating. Mustafa said that this market was virtually ignored and it was President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s vision to enter into this market, which has proved to be very productive.

Deputy Minister Musthapha affirmed that the government was taking all precautionary measures to protect the foreigners, as well as locals, in spite of the security situation prevailing in the country. He stated that if not for the conflict, the industry would have more confidence in attracting more tourists. He added that Sri Lanka tourism was very successful and we won the silver award for planning the Sri Lanka pavilion at the International Tourism Bourse held in Berlin recently, which is the biggest travel mart in the world. This year it had included 180 countries with over 10,000 participants with Sri Lanka putting forward 46 companies and about 100 participants.

Central Province Chief Minister Sarath Ekanayake in his address pointed out that although in the earlier days Sri Lanka only had its beaches, the country now has so many aspects and purposes to attract the tourists. “In the central province there is trekking and so many other new ideas and we will work together with the Tourism Ministry to raise the Sri Lankan fourth foreign income earning tourism industry” he said. More importantly, for this year’s delegation the Ministry had taken on board, Sarath Ekanayake, Chief Minister and Tourism Minister of the Central Provincial Council as a member of the official delegation led by Deputy Minister Faizer Musthapha. This happened sequel to a decision taken by Hon. Milinda Moragoda, Tourism Minister, in leveraging tourism resources in a true sense from the centre to provinces, allowing Provincial Tourism Authorities to gain foreign exposure as central agencies do. During the minister’s first year in office in 2007, he decided to request Southern Provincial Chief Minister and Tourism Minister Hon. Shan Wijelal de Silva to attend 2007 ITB in place of him.

This is among several such travels opportunities offered to Provincial Council Tourism officials in the recent past by the Tourism Ministry on the advice of the Tourism Minister.

Pursuing this policy, the Ministry of Tourism is looking forward to fostering strong relationships with the Provincial Tourism Authorities for product and service sector development which had been paid very little attention previously.

 Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Managing Director Dileep Mudadeniya in his speech said that the massive campaign on Sri Lanka included a 3 minute advertisement aired on 26 channels about 500 times. “We had a special tea boutique, a gem and jewellery competition, as well as an ayurveda treatment centre and Sri Lankan dancers to attract tourists to the stall and also road shows in about five areas where we had one on one campaigns to educate them on Sri Lanka” he said.