High spenders for golf tourney

Hemanthi Guruge

SriLankan Airline will host the country’s first PGA golf tournament tomorrow in a bid to promote up market tourism in the country. Sri Lanka has drawn up plans to promote up market tourism and the forthcoming golf tournament is an ideal opportunity for this.

SriLankan Airlines Chairman Nishantha Wickremasinghe said that many high spending tourists from US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland and other countries will participate in this event.

Events such as golf, international rugby sevens and pro-surfing play a key role in promoting Sri Lanka as a best tourist destination in the world.

There has been a sharp increase on tourist arrivals in 2011 compared to the same period last year. Sri Lanka’s tourist arrivals in 2011 jumped 30.8 percent to a record 855,975 and the government targets 2.5 million tourist arrivals by 2016.