Lankan tourism to be promoted globally

Anjana Samarasinghe

CAMPAIGN: The Sri Lanka Tourist Board (SLTB) expects to organize a promotional campaign to promote local tourism internationally.

Director General, SLTB, S. Kalaiselvam told Daily News that the current situation in the country has confused tourists.

This will affect the tourism industry. Through this campaign SLTB expects to educate tourists on tourists destination they could travel to in the country and also hope to give clear picture of the country's situation.

The up coming events such as World Spice Day, and Colombo Marathon 2006 will also be ideal opportunities to promote Sri Lankan tourism in the world, Kalaiselvam said. This year they also expect to focus on countries like China, Japan and the Far East, apart from the traditional markets. However SLTB has allocated fairly a large sum for its marketing budget this year.

Speaking about investments made in the tourism industry he said that small scale investors are keen on investing in the industry rather than the large scale innovators.

According to the SLTB total number of hotels in operations was 224 in June 2006 and was 203 in June 2005. Number of rooms available in June 2006 was 13,555 and was 11,999 last year. In June the room occupation rate was 39.6 and was 40.2 last year.