Business AVIATION

Silver Award for Lankan ITB pavilion

Hiran H. Senewiratne

Sri Lanka Tourism has cruised to victory by winning the second place (Silver Award) in the ITB Stalls Competition held recently which followed an appreciation for its contribution extended to keep up the tourism.

Perhaps for the first time a Sri Lankan pavilion was adjudged the runner-up in the competition for the best stall in the Asia, Australia and New Zealand regions. It is only second to the Korean stand while the Singapore stand adjudged the third place.

This was awarded to the Sri Lankan stand by considering criterion on various aspects which includes hospitality, entertainments and other attraction adopted by ITB organizing committee. It was awarded on March 8 at the main hall.

The ITB being the largest travel and tourism exhibition in the world held from March 5-9 in Berlin. More than 50 Sri Lankan travels, tourism and leisure sector companies participated at the event.

This stall was designed to appear more open to visitors by adopting visitors to make easier on a more easy to make contacts with Sri Lankan representatives and various attractions on Sri Lanka.

The stall had a theme with an open concept, featuring Sri Lanka UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Singharaja virgin rain forest including special features like service of free Ayurveda foot massaging, a tea service, a wood mask carver in action with background sounds of chirping endemic birds of Sri Lanka, made it an easy win next to Korea, which won the gold, Sri Lanka Tourism top official told the Daily News Business.

Chandana Wickramasinge’s dancing troupe performed in front of Sri Lankan pavilion where the entrance was adorned with a replica of the impressive Watadage door way and staircase unique to the monument of Polonnaruwa era.

An architect designed the entire stand area that has been working with many years with the Sri Lankan Tourist Board.

Dubai’s AOC opts for SriLankan getaway

SriLankan Holidays’ campaign to woo Middle East leisure travellers to sunny Sri Lanka reaped results recently when a group of 26 men and women responsible for the smooth operation of Dubai International Airport flew here in earlier February.

The group, all members of the Airport Operating Committee included the Chiefs of Dubai’s Department of Immigration and the Department of Customs, the General Manager of Dubai Aviation, the Emirates Vice President for Terminals and the airport and station managers of the international airline.

SriLankan Holidays organised the five nights, six days holiday and covered the sights and experiences in the western coastal belt, the historic hill capital Kandy and Colombo.

The group had very positive feedback on the arrangements and their experience in Sri Lanka, with the group leader Airport Service Manager -Dubai International Airport T1, Sherine Samarkone endorsed the visit and the facilities in Sri Lanka saying “The DXB AOC trip was a huge success, all the members and government officials were highly taken up with all the arrangements and they were quite impressed with the country. Specially the cleanliness in the hotels and facilities within.”

Emirates announces flights to LA

Emirates, is set to expand its network even further this year with the start of services to the West Coast of the U.S. On September 1st Emirates will open its third U.S. gateway with non-stop flights between the Californian city of Los Angeles and Dubai.

Operating daily, the service will be the first non-stop operation connecting Dubai, the Gateway to Arabia to L.A., the Gateway to Hollywood. Emirates will fly its Boeing 777-200LR on the route, offering 266 seats in a three-class configuration and will provide up to 10 tonnes of cargo capacity from L.A.

Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum said: “Los Angeles represents Emirates’ commitment to the American market. We have evaluated the U.S. for expansion opportunities and have carefully examined our existing services in Houston and New York- both of which have been very successful. We look forward to recreating this success by connecting Los Angeles to Dubai and beyond.”

The new flight runs a distance of 8339 miles, clocking 16 hours 35 minutes journey time to California, while the shorter return flight will be just less than 16 hours.

Passengers in all classes will enjoy the award-winning service from Emirates’ international cabin crew recruited from over 100 countries around the world.

The new service will operate out of the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport, (LAX). LAX is located 24 kms southwest of Los Angeles and is the world’s fifth busiest airport. In 2007, the airport handled more than 61 million passengers.

L. A. is the fourth new destination that Emirates has announced it will be introducing in 2008.

The airline has already announced its plans to start services to Cape Town on 30th March plus Calicut, India and Guangzhou, China, both on 1st July of this year. The new route joins Emirates’ growing network of American destinations including a double daily service to New York’s JFK International Airport and its daily service to Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport.