TRAVEL

More tourists from Israel, Lebanon now

Charumini de Silva

The Tourism industry has shown a significant improvement and is one of the industries which generates considerable income and brings foreign exchange to the country.

The number of tourist arrivals from countries such as Israel and Lebanon has grown and has also shown interest in visiting Sri Lanka, AIDA Group Managing Director Yohan Waduge told Daily News Business.

It is timely that the country should take action to market Sri Lanka in an inviting manner as the Government has set plans to achieve a target of 2.5 million tourist arrivals by 2016, he said.

The areas where there are many hotels and tourists should be developed soon.

Establishing tourist information centres and illuminating the streets will greatly help the visitors, he said.

The hotels in Kandy will be fully occupied during the Esela Perahera. There are opportunities for hoteliers to upgrade their services and products.

The number of visitors has shown an increase of 60 to 70 percent compared to last year up to now.

Waduge said as the personal training for the employees engaged in the industry should improve to cater to the enhanced demand. We should make use of the opportunity available to empower our people to overcome the unemployment rate.

AIDA resorts have invested Rs three million to set up a wellness spa named Avinya. There is a great interest and a demand for ayurvedic medicaments. The highest demand is from Germany and many other European tourists.

Connaissance promotes social tourism

A special group of 101 French students under 18 years, along with four professors arrived in Sri Lanka on July 11. This group was organized by the Connaissance de Ceylan and it is partly sponsored by the Levallois Municipality, a city near Paris.

This is the first time that a group of this nature has come to visit the island after many years. Apart form doing a round tour in Sri Lanka, they were engaged in different social work in social centres down South such as Boossa, Kathaluwa, Ahangama.

The importance of this group is that it helps cultivate a new tourism segment called social tourism in Sri Lanka where the participants are engaged in various social responsibility programs in the host country.

With such arrivals, Sri Lanka will soon be known as an ideal destination not only for authenticity, bio and cultural diversity and sandy beaches but also for ‘social tourism’, providing ample opportunity to meet Sri Lankan population and get to know their social lifestyle.

This new segment will build social exchanges between the visitor and the host and provide excellent credibility to the destination.