Sri Lanka in ‘final stages of recovery’
WTM Special Report: Sri Lanka will fall just shy of 100,000 UK visitors this year as the destination moves into the final stages of its recovery strategy.
UK and Ireland regional director Jean-Marc Flambert said arrivals will fall around 5% from last year’s record 106,000 but forecast a buoyant 2006.
The upbeat outlook came as tourist officials blitzed the London underground with posters for the first time and ran a series of TV ads. The marketing campaign will run for two weeks.
Flambert said: “It’s too early to say it’s business as usual. We are in the final stages of our recovery and while I expect to see a dip around December and January as people remember the first anniversary of the tsunami, I believe next year will be tremendous. There is pent up demand.”
He claimed the UK market had held up reasonably well during the year as the 100km stretch of coast between Bentota and Negombo – where the majority of UK travelers visit – escaped relatively unscathed.
In a further marketing push, Flambert said 7000 newly-published travel trade manuals will be distributed to agents in a bid to expand their patchy knowledge of the country.
“You cannot expect them to have a detailed knowledge of Sri Lanka if they have never been,” he said. “This will help increase that knowledge.”
The manual will also direct agents to its new website.
Report by Steve Jones
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