'Sri Lanka best tourist destination'

Athapattu BANADARA

"Post conflict Sri Lanka would be the finest destination for tourists and the country is well set to accommodate them. It is clear that that Sri Lanka's tourism sector would achieve a tremendous growth in the near future,," said Cathay Pacific Sri Lanka and Maldives' Country Manager Edward Coles.

Edward Coles

"Sri Lanka has opened its gates for the tourism sector and for the aviation sector as well.

It is evident with a sense of optimism, that the country is upgrading the infrastructure after the end of war and this has produced productive results," he added.

"To develop the industry, it is important to improve its infrastructure facilities and we have observed that the government's future plans in this area were fruitful.

The construction of highways and the road network would also spur the industry," he predicted, adding that the Mattala Airport which was under construction, would also help the tourism industry as the country still depended solely on the Colombo Airport.

Countries having more international airports was an added facility to the tourism industry.

In particular, Sri Lanka would hopefully be among the fastest growing markets for international passenger traffic and the Mattala Airport too would cater to this increased passenger traffic," he stated.

"The post war scenario has brought many positive things to the country and had created the potential for both leisure and business to increase tremendously. Therefore, this situations should be capitalized for the country's for benefit towards making Sri Lanka more financially stable," he said.

"SriLanka Airlines being accepted as the Oneworld Alliance at the IATA's 2012 World Air Transport Summit, the SriLankan Airline was working very cooperatively and deserved to be awarded the Oneworld theme as it provided a high quality service to its travellers. "As Sri Lanka's economy continues to grow fast, the need for more airports could bring in more flights with less difficulty, which was very essential.

Cathay Pacific too was highly delighted in assisting SriLankan Airlines to join hands, being the best airline partners in the world," he said.