Sri Lankan Night at Nizhny Novgorod

The “Mega Tourism Caravan” arrived at the fifth largest city of the Russian Federation. Nizhny Novgorod. Colloquially shortened to Nizhny, with a population of 1,250,615, it is the fifth largest city in Russia and the Administrative centre of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.

The city is an important economic, transportation and cultural center of Russia and the vast Volga - Vyatka economic region. Nizhny Novgorod is one of the centers of the IT Industry in Russia.

Sri Lanka’s Ambassador in Russia Udayanga Weeratunga addressing the participants at the promotion.

It ranks among the leading Russian cities in terms of the quantity of software R and D providers. Intelhas a big software RandD center with more than 500 engineers in the city, as well as a major datacenter.

The first event of the day, ‘Workshop for travel and tour operators” was held in the Yalta Hall of the Marins Hotel. The workshop which was attended by approximately one hundred participants was the first, to be held in Nizhny.

Udayanga Weeratunga welcomed all participants and conducted a very informative and educative presentation on Sri Lankan Tourism. During the presentation he covered salient points such as history, climatic conditions, major tourist attractions, major cities, visa procedures and recent infrastructure developments in the spheres’ of socio – economic and tourism.

Marins Park Hotel is the biggest modern hotel in Nizhny Novgorod and Privolzhskiy federal district.

In the evening, the cultural show “Sri Lanka Night” was held at famous ‘Markin Square’ of Nizhniy. Markin Square is an area on the Lower Volga River embankment near the railway station and has been named in honor of Commander of the Volga flotilla Nikolai Markin. Markin, Baltic Bolshevik sailor, was the organizer and the Commissioner of the legendary Volga Flotilla, which was created in Nizhny Novgorod.

Dancers directed by maestro Chandana Wickramasinghe mesmerized the gathering during the Sri Lankan Night and the photo exhibition which was held at the Marins Hotel was a major attraction during the workshop.

The main collaborator of the campaign is the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau under the Ministry of Economic Development.