Greig bats for Sri Lanka Tourism

Nethali Struys

World famous past cricketer and commentator Tony Greig has been appointed as Sri Lanka Tourism ambassador by Sri Lanka Tourism. This was officially announced at the Cinnamon Grand hotel last Monday.

Greig will be acting as the tourism envoy for six months to promote Sri Lanka during the ongoing World Cup and the Indian Premier League (IPL), said Sri Lanka Tourism Chairman Dr Nalaka Godahewa.

"The Tourism Industry welcomes the appointment and noted that it will help attract many viewers during the ICC World Cup and the IPL thereafter. Tony's role in promoting Sri Lanka will have a positive impact among prospective holiday makers to Sri Lanka," Godahewa said.This year's theme is tourism and all 12 months have been allocated for various activities to develop tourism. This makes the month of February the month for sports and adventure sports. Appointing Tony Greig is parallel to this program," he said.

"Tony is an ideal spokesman for the country and for the global audience especially in the area of sports tourism, due to his capability in building up the image of Sri Lanka." Sri Lanka Promotion Bureau Acting Managing Director Malraj Kiriella added.

Last year Sri Lanka drew a record 650,000 tourists, up by 46 percent whilst among major source markets include Europe especially England and South Asia dominantly India, where some of the regional countries which find cricket as a passion or a religion. Tony Greig's role will also attract more tourists from traditionally cricket strong yet tourist wise under- performing countries such as Australia, South Africa, West Indies, South Africa and Canada. A colourful wrestling event at the Sri Lanka Tourism auditorium to mark this event.

New ambassador Tony Greig said "he will do his very best to uplift Sri Lankan tourism." He pointed out that it wont be difficult to gain that target with the good hospitality Sri Lanka has.