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| Tuesday, 13 January 2004 |
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Charter flights to carry Japanese tourists to Lanka by Sudarshana Perera In a major move to develop the tourism industry in Sri Lanka, LK Japan Enterprises, a Japanese based travel agency will fly in more than 349 Japanese tourists to Sri Lanka next April on charter flight basis.
The first charter flight carrying Japanese tourists after 1978 arrived in Sri Lanka last week. "We in cooperation with the Sri Lankan Embassy in Japan have drawn up a comprehensive strategy to tap the Japanese market", said CEO of LK Japan Enterprises Lester De Alwis in a telephone interview with the "Daily News" from Japan. De Alwis said that they are promoting major attractions such as historical places, beaches and shopping facilities in Sri Lanka. "We will fly in more Japanese tourists during the Esala Perahera Season because they like Sri Lankan cultural beauty so much". We are also planning to bring down more than 900 tourists in August too on two charter flights, he said. Speaking on the marketing strategies adopted in Japan to promote Sri Lankan destinations, he said they are conducting educational tours for Japanese based travel agents and journalists by carrying them to Sri Lanka. We also carry out propaganda through the media, TV advertisements and other promotions. "We also conduct seminars in Japanese for tour operators in well-known Hotels in Japan to create more awareness and promote Sri Lanka. "We have a potential market and the market would tremendously improve in time to come", he said. He also said that since Japanese like pro-surfing, the tour promoters would continue to attract Japanese pro-surfers to Sri Lanka's beaches as our beaches are ideal for the purpose. He too emphasized the need to educate tour assistants to understand the mentality of the Japanese and treat them accordingly. "We have to improve the hospitality modalities we adopt for the Japanese", he said. If Sri Lanka can achieve permanent peace, the market would be tremendous", he said. |
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