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| Friday, 23 May 2003 |
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Travel Mart draws positive response : Sri Lanka gears for mega show next year by Tharika Goonathilake Upbeat by the positive response of the just-concluded country's first ever Travel Mart and Exhibition, `Destination Sri Lanka, Gateway to South Asia-' Sri Lanka Tourism, is gearing to present a bigger and better show in July next year. The Mart, a milestone in the travel industry here, is the second of its kind in the South Asian region (after India) and the first attempt by Sri Lanka to showcase the destination.
Although dogged by initial fears that buyers would shy away from the destination, given the recent SARS health scare and other world trends, the turnout at the Mart was excellent, Sri Lanka Convention Bureau General Manager," S.S Gopinath said. The Bureau, the main organisers of the event, is a non-profit marketing and promotional arm under the Ministry of Tourism and had targeted around 100 new buyers for this year's event and had over 75 new buyers participating. Given the pre-selective criteria for the potential buyers, those who came were genuinely interested in exploring the destination's tourism product and helping to promote more business here, Gopinath said. "It was also a springboard to cash in on the peace process and conducive environment created for travel, after nearly 20 years of conflict.
And the response ? It is a turning point for the travel and tourism industry," he said adding that "the aim of reaching even higher numbers even with competition from other regional markets next year is realistic, given Sri Lanka's diversity and tourism product be it for leisure or business travel." Aitken Spence Travels Managing Director Gehan Perera expressed similar sentiments. "For a first effort, the Mart was very good and the quality of buyers at the exhibition far exceeded our expectations," he said. According to him, the company has been able to conduct several business initiatives especially with the new buyers and was very positive of securing more business in the longer run. Jetwing Hotels Managing Director Travels, Shiroomal Cooray agrees. "There was a positive turn out for the Mart. Regional buyers were significantly present at the event," she said adding that the country should aim to bring in more European representation next year. "Given the recent global trends and the SARS scare this is to be expected, but a Mart of this nature is good start and something very positive for the country," Cooray said. Serendib Leisure CEO Srilal Miththapala too cited the success of the Mart as "excellent for a first time effort" and commended the move by the Convention Bureau to host an event of this nature. "The original target of getting down around 150 buyers fell short of expectation, but there was still a significant number of new buyers who have shown a keen interest to ensure that Sri Lanka's tourism product is sold to key tour operators and travel agents on a global scale," he said. The layout of the exhibition booth bearing similarities to Travel Marts overseas was a striking feature of the mart that gave it a professional flavour, he opined. However, several key industry personnel said there is a need for a more effective marketing concept for the destination. Consistency in the standards of the booth, is another area that needs to be looked into, in future events. "Given the huge stall costs borne by companies to showcase their product overseas especially at the World Travel Mart, the quality and presentation of some of the seller booths were not up to standard, while some were on a very professional level. This highlights a marked contrast," they said. Several key industry personnel while commending the efforts to host the Mart, also reiterated the need for the industry to "work together" to ensure better results next year, especially with regard to capitalising and promoting the destination to its full potential. "The diversity of our product be it for leisure or business enables buyers to pinpoint aspects related to our products that they feel will appeal to their clients, but there is a need for proper marketing and conceptualising the destination product more effectively," they said. ***************** Credit Card seminar for TAASL Travel Agents Association of Sri Lanka (TAASL) recently arranged a seminar for members of the Association on the use of credit card and how unscrupulous persons can fraudulently use them for purchases. The seminar was conducted and organised by Anne Sivalingam Chairman of Anne Travels and Tours (Pvt) Ltd., Chairperson Humane Resource Development of the Association. A very informative talk was given by two senior officials of Hatton National Bank Ravi Amarasekara and Roshantha Jayatunga. The seminar was attended by several leading travel agency staff from over 50 travel agencies. The vice president of the Travel Agents Association Nihal Perera, Chairman/Managing Director of Sparklink Travel Ltd attended the seminar on behalf of the Travel Agent Association of Sri Lanka. |
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Produced by Lake House |
Sri Lanka Tourism aimed at luring potential buyers from India, Nepal,
Pakistan, Maldives, Maldives, Bhutan, Far East and Europe for the six day
travel Mart cum Exhibition, widened its ambit with the inclusion of
restaurants, incentive houses, airlines, gem and craft jewellery stores as
well as other travel related service providers.
" The General Manager said the Bureau had been keen to provide a
platform for new buyers and sellers to meet and discuss new initiatives to
ensure a bigger share of the tourism market, while concurrently
facilitating efforts to create two to three centre holiday options to
promote regional tourism.
