Tourism

Concentration to up market clientele:

Sri Lanka returns to the French Market

ON THE occasion of the Sri Lanka day organized by its Tourist Board office in Paris on September 11, Minister of Tourism, Milinda Moragoda was present, accompanied by the Chairman of the Tourist Board, Renton de Alwis and the Additional Director-General, Dileep Mudadeniya to introduce new products and the measures taken to re-launch the destination and renew its identity.

The Sri Lanka Day provided an opportunity for the Tourist Board to reveal vital information for the French market.

Fully aware of its negative image in the French market, Sri Lanka Tourism opted for transparency and requested an independent private French security firm to conduct a security audit related to tourism activities.

The evaluation, conducted over a period of 12 days by Securite Sans Frontieres (SSF), covered various tourism sites, hotel infrastructures, airport and other forms of transport as well as general conditions of security (political, social, health and weather-related).

According to Frederic Bauer, President of SSF, “the in-depth study of the security conditions has permitted us to make specific and detailed technical recommendations. The terrorist risk is not that greater in Sri Lanka than other countries visited by the French.

In conclusion, the security situation for us is acceptable for tourism visits to Sri Lanka and I take responsibility for recommending the destination for French Tourists.”

This positive conclusion is welcome change to the position adopted by the travel advisory of the French Foreign Ministry which contributed to a great extent the increasing negative perception of the destination due to the security problems related to the North and East of the country.

Sri Lanka, selected as host country for World Tourism Day (27 September 2007) by the World Tourism Organization, wishes to emphasize this year’s theme “Tourism opens Doors for Women”. The communication campaign entitled “Men Don’t Get It” will be revealed on this occasion.

Sri Lanka also announced its projects relating to the consolidation and renewal of its identity. Beyond its classical products - culture and beaches - Sri Lanka has decided to concentrate on up market clientele and is developing a number of luxury establishments.

Mice to strengthen trade, investment and tourism ties

SPECIAL MICE Package attracts More Indian Corporate meetings and Incentives part of the initiative by the President to strengthen trade, investment and tourism ties with the closest neighbour India, the Sri Lankan Tourism delegation returned to Sri Lanka following a successful completion of the first leg of the Indian MICE promotion (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) in Bangalore and Hyderabad.

On the direction of Tourism Minister Milinda Moragoda, this is the first time that Sri Lanka Convention Bureau has undertaken a promotion of this magnitude to cover most of the important Indian cities. The promotion will continue in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and other 2 tier cities in the coming months.

The MICE promotion was carried out by the Bureau, in partnership with SriLankan Airlines, Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces and the MICE Industry in Sri Lanka.

The 40 member team was led by the Chairman of the Bureau Prema Cooray and many industry leaders joined while SriLankan Airlines too was represented.

The campaign in Bangalore and Hyderabad consisted of one to one business meetings with Indian Corporates where it was heartening to see the Sri Lankan Tourism Industry leaders joining hands with the Bureau and Sri Lankan Airlines to promote the destination as a venue for meetings and incentives.

The Indian media including The Hindu, Times of India, Deccan Chronical, Hyderbad times, Indian Express gave wide publicity for the presence of the Sri Lankan delegation.

This is the first time that Industry came forward to offer a special MICE rate, which was packaged by SriLankan Airlines and marketed through its sales network and the Travel agents in India. Publicity was enhanced by a special supplement in the Economic Times that was published on the day of the promotion in both cities.

Two special events also took place during the promotion. One was the presentations made to Association and Corporate members of the Trade Chambers in both cities not only educating them of the meetings and incentive facilities available in diversity of locations but also the special offer that the industry has come up with.

Sri Lankan team was able to create awareness among the Indian Corporates on the product profile, proximity and price citing the benefits the Corporates will receive by having the their programs in Sri Lanka.

In addition to the coverage in other cities in the coming months, Sri Lankan Convention Bureau and SriLankan Airlines will continue to focus its promotional efforts in India in the next few years considering the size of the Indian outbound MICE traffic in order to secure a reasonable share of the market.

Sri Lankan MICE industry is fully geared to cater to the Indian up market MICE traffic and with that, increasing arrivals of Indian MICE traffic could be expected in the coming months.

Rain hits Britain summer tourism

The number of tourists visiting Britain this summer suffered due to dismal weather and major security incidents in London and in Glasgow, data and experts said Friday.

According to the figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) the number of visits plunged from 3.53 millions in July 2006 to 3.24 million for the same month this year.

Record rainfall which left seven people dead in England was one factor, but Elliott Frisby of national tourism agency VisitBritain said security concerns also contributed after the failed attacks at the start of June.

“In June, the security alert strongly rose after the attack on Glasgow airport. I think it has more to do with that than with the weather for foreign visitors,” he told AFP.

Before the attacks tourism had been on the rise: the number of foreign tourists visiting from January-July rose by one percent to 18.56 million.

Constraints subsiding - tourist arrivals increasing

Adverse travel advisories imposed by European countries and the North-East violence during the early part of this year lead to a drop in tourist arrivals and revenue. With the advisories softening and violence subsiding the Chairman Sri Lanka Tourist Board Renton de Alwis predicts that the industry would pick up. “Already arrivals have increased,” he said.

A look at the first six-months tourism arrivals and revenue in 2006 and 2007.