Russia to construct hotel in Lanka

Hemanthi GURUGE

A leading company in Russia, Gazprom expresses its willingness to construct a hotel in Sri Lanka, in order to promote tourism between Sri Lanka and Russia.

This hotel would comprise more than 200 rooms, with all the facilities.

Tourist arrivals from Russia has sharply increased since 2011 and plans are under way to increase the number of tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka from 23,000 in 2011 to 50,000 by the end of 2012.

Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Russia Udayanga Weeratunga told Daily News Business that, Sri Lanka has drawn up plans to promote market tourism and Russia is ideal for this. Russia was listed seventh on the listed highest spending market.

There has been a sharp increase of tourist arrivals from Russia to Sri Lanka due to the commencement of direct airlines from Sri Lanka to Russia.

Aerosvit is being operated three times a week from Kyiv to Colombo and Aeroflot being operated twice a week from Moscow to Colombo. SriLankan Airlines has commenced a flight between Colombo and Moscow since last September.

This flight via Dubai is scheduled twice a week.

These three aircraft is capable of accommodating more than 1,000 passengers per week.

Sri Lankan Embassy in Russia has taken measures to introduce a tourist guidebook in Sri Lanka to promote tourism.

There is a shortage of Russian speaking people in Sri Lanka and it is a major disadvantage of promoting tourism between Sri Lanka and Russia.

Tourism is among the main drivers of economic growth, major tourist attractions focused around the island are the famous beaches located in the southern and eastern part of the country.

Sri Lanka’s tourist arrivals increased by 30 percent to 855,975 from January to December 2011, compared to 2010. Tourist arrivals are expected to increase sharply over the next few years due to intensive marketing of Sri Lanka as a world-class tourist destination.