British arrivals to Lanka on the increase

Shirajiv Sirimanne

INCREASE: There has been a steady increase of British tourists over the years to Sri Lanka said Sri Lanka Tourist Board (SLTB) Director UK and Ireland, Jean Marc Flambert. The annual increase is around 5 percent.

He said that the UK arrivals were averaging around the 90,000 mark and by the end of this year it would exceed 100,000.

He said that the Virgin Atlantic airlines in UK is planning to fly direct to Sri Lanka in two years and when the service materialise the number of UK travellers to Sri Lanka would double.

Flambert said that this year UK outbound market was mainly attracted to the German World cup which took away a big slice from the would-be Asian bound tourists. "In addition security threats at London airports and good sunny weather in UK also cut down the UK outbound market to all destinations," he said.

It is estimated that around 70 million Britains travel overseas every year out of which around 12 million travel to long haul destinations such as Asia, Australia and the Caribbean.

He said that both India and Maldives two fierce competitors for Sri Lankan tourism is investing around one million pounds per annum for publicity to their destinations in UK. Sri Lankan budget for UK in 2006 is 500,000, pounds.

He said that they have also managed to get over 4,000 pounds of free publicity by way of several events.

When asked as to why the Sri Lanka stand is occupying a relatively small area and the floor plan was not too impressive he said that it was to save money. "WTM is for buyers and not to attract visitors.

We have to pay 67,000 UK pounds just to obtain the floor area at the WTM," he said.

However stands in Trinidad and Tobago saw cricketers such as Clive Lloyd and Joel Garner while several other promotions and music was available in other stands which attracted more visitors.

Meanwhile the Maldives received tremendous boost for their country when the country was nominated as the 'best diving destination in the World' at the WTM global awards ceremony while India too won several global awards while Sri Lanka despite having seven World Heritage sites returned empty handed.