Sri Lanka sees UK tourism recovery
Sri Lanka expects to attract almost 100,000 UK visitors this year, with more than 70% booking through travel agents.
This compares with 88,000 UK travellers in 2006 and follows the Sri Lankan Tourism Promotional Bureau receiving £1 million from UK travel companies in marketing support and joint agreements to rebuild inbound tourism following the Tsunami nearly three years ago which devastated parts of the country.
The SLTPB has a programme of educating travel agents, including familiarization tours, in-office training and the chance for agents to become a ‘friend’ of Sri Lanka on Facebook.
“This ongoing support from the trade is extremely important for this small island, particularly given the recent isolated military conflicts and their perceived threat to tourists,” a spokesman said.
UK and Ireland director Jean-Marc Flambert said: “It has remained deeply significant for us to maintain a multi-faceted approach in influencing and educating the trade and in particular the travel agents, in sharing new hotel product, the variety of tours available from wildlife to bird watching, activity holidays and voluntourism.
“We were and remain overwhelmed by the support offered by the travel trade to our consumer joint marketing agreements. The resulting rise in visitors is a trend we see continuing throughout 2008.”
by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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