SL tourism targeting 800,000 this year

Nethali Struys

"Our intention is to achieve the target of 800,000 tourist arrivals by the end of this year," said Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority Product Development and Events Director Upali de Silva.

Sri Lanka Tourism is promoting 12 themes for 12 months under the guidance of the Economic Development Ministry coinciding with 'Visit Sri Lanka' year which has already witnessed over 250,000 tourist arrivals, he said.

All promotional activities and events which have been planned for the next couple of years is with the goal of achieving the target of 2.5 million tourists by 2016, de Silva said.

The Tourism Awards 2010 which will be held at Waters Edge on May 27 is another attempt to achieve this target. This is being done for the fourth time and it is being held to recognize and reward excellence in the travel and tourism industry, thus promoting and enhancing the delivery of service standards.

The winners, chosen by a panel of industry experts, will be announced at the awards ceremony. Apart from general awards such as tourism legends, tourism pioneers, outstanding contribution to tourism, tourism entrepreneur of the year and leisure attraction of the year, a new section that includes best hotels in ayurveda tourism, adventure sports, water sports, eco-tourism, heritage and culture, agri-tourism etc. are also included.

Leisure attraction of the year, professional conference organizer, professional exhibition organizer and tourism promotional campaign are other new sections considered for appraisals. Electronic media programmes and news items on travel and tourism, print media presentations and articles on travel and tourism during 2010 are eligible. Foreign journalists who have been promoting Sri Lanka's tourism and best tourism website are some of the added sections that will be considered for awards this year.