SLTB honours German tour operators

SHIRAJIV Sirimane

BERLIN: Top travel agents who yielded best results for Sri Lanka in 2005 from the German market were honoured at the Sri Lankan stand for their progress at the ITB, one of the world's premier travel trade shows, held in the German capital last week.

These operators played prominent role in promoting Sri Lanka as a destination. Last year indicated a decrease in European tourist arrivals while the Indian arrivals increased.

Western Europe market, the second best market for Sri Lanka tourism, kept on dropping with German arrivals by 20 per cent. The UK tourism market too reduced by around 10 percent while the Austrian and Italian market dropped by nearly 50 percent.

The awards were presented to the top three agents by Minister of Tourism, Anura Bandaranaike, Chairman, Sri Lanka Tourist Board, (SLTB) Udaya Nanayakkara and Sri Lanka Ambassador in Germany, Jayantha Palipane.

Meanwhile Qatar Airways and Qatar Tourism Authority were adjudged by the exhibition organisers as the second and third best Middle East stand, respectively, at the five-day ITB Berlin.

Airline CEO Akbar Al Baker, was also honoured by the prominent Pacific Asia Travel Writers' Association (PATWA) with the 'Aviation Man of the Year' award for his achievements in turning Qatar Airways into one of the fastest growing airlines in the world.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) called India the industry's greatest potential market with airplane orders from Indian carriers grabbing headlines, but

also warned the world's airlines against the risk of overcapacity.

"India was always a great market, but for the future. Now it can become an important market in the short term," said industry group's chief executive Giovanni Bisignani said.

"India is our greatest potential market," he said. "We are very pleased to see such an enormous potential market of 1.2 billion passengers moving in the right direction."

India's aviation sector has witnessed an average passenger growth rate between 25-30 per cent in recent years, fuelled by an expanding economy and the rising income of India's estimated 300 million strong middle class.

Meanwhile China will spend 140 billion Chinese yuan ($17.4 billion) over the next five years to expand its airport infrastructure to meet a forecast 14 percent annual growth in domestic air traffic, a

civil aviation official said Tuesday.

That is sharply higher than the 120 billion yuan ($14.9 billion) the government spent on airport infrastructure in the fifteen years from 1990 to 2005. China's aggressive aviation development plans come as air

traffic continues to grow at double-digit rates.

In 2005, Chinese airlines carried 138 million passengers, up 15.5 percent from the previous year, and 3.4 million tons of cargo, up 13.8 percent. Currently, about 25 million people travelled by air.