Lanka eyes more travellers from Middle East

A high level travel delegation from Sri Lanka, led by Deputy Tourism Minister Faizer Mustapha will target prominent countries in the Gulf including UAE and Qatar in a bid to attract increased leisure traffic.

During the four-day visit between August 24 to 27 Musthapha will meet large scale hospitality industry operators including tour operators and travel agencies.

“The Middle East is one of our major travel origin markets and in 2008 we have seen significant growth from this market. We are increasing our marketing and promotion drive by carrying out a year round campaign to increase our share of leisure visitors and further increase awareness about our country’s tourism attractions,” Musthapha said.

Mustapha’s visit denotes the importance Sri Lanka attaches to this market and its growth potential. Destination Sri Lanka recently reported a surge in tourist industry arrivals. The highest performer during the period was the Middle East, which registered an increase of 80.6 per cent in comparison with 2007. Mustapha’s visit is expected to impact positively on the number of tourist arrivals from the Middle East.

“A marketing visit such as this provides an exceptional platform to access the Middle East travel trade, and establish new business contacts as well as renew existing ones and interact with a very keen travel trade audience,” he said.

Mustapha added: “The cities of Dubai and Doha were chosen because of the large volumes of travellers they generate for Sri Lanka and we already have pre-confirmed meetings with senior personnel from the travel trade in both cities.”

Mustapha had earlier announced the opening of an SLTPB office in Dubai to target the Middle East travellers. The opening of a new SLTPB office in Dubai will maximise the opportunities emerging throughout the Middle East while strengthening support for the travel trade in the region.

SLTPB’s Dubai office will co-ordinate all of Sri Lanka’s tourism promotional activities in the Arab markets including exhibition participation, marketing visits, presentations and road shows, advertising, brochure distribution, public relations, as well as familiarisation visits to the island for influential business and travel journalists.

The office will also function as the preliminary contact point and enquiry processing centre for travel trade companies and tourists in the region.

Tourists from all over the world visit Sri Lanka every year in search of a perfect holiday ranging from nature, culture, adventure, education, healing and spiritual discovery to connecting with roots or simply to watch a cricket match.

Al Bawaba