Tourism promo in France

A. G. Piyadasa

Sri Lanka Tourism will to go France today to recapture the important market segment. France is an important market for Sri Lanka from where around 30,000 tourists visit Sri Lanka annually making the fourth largest in-bound tourism market.

French visitors spend an average of 11 nights in Sri Lanka and with the drop in arrivals due to adverse travel advisories, the industry has incurred a loss in turnover of over 10 million Euros.

With the softening of the travel advisories opening doors, the Sri Lanka Embassy is doing the ground work in preparation for the re-launch of destination Sri Lanka today at the UNESCO Auditorium in Paris creating a "buzz" about Sri Lanka a couple of days prior to the French Travel Fair in Deuville scheduled for the end of September.

The Channa-Upuli Dance Foundation who has been cultural ambassadors of Sri Lanka this year, being featured in many capitals of the world attracting attention to Sri Lanka, is also scheduled to perform in the Paris event. Over 1000 tourism professionals have already confirmed their participation at the re-launch.