Sri Lanka welcomes luxury cruise Queen Elizabeth with 2000 tourists

Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, along with the officials of Sri Lanka Port Authority, welcomed the vessel ‘Queen Elizabeth’ on Friday, at a brief ceremony held in the Colombo harbour.

This luxury carrier, owned by the UK based company Cunard, had more than 2000 tourists on board, consisted of the British, Australia, Japan, South Africa and France nationals.
The local excursion tour operator Gemini Tours and Travels was thereafter busy with taking tourists in the ship to the prearranged destinations; Kandy, Pinnawala and Colombo City Tour. By 6.00 pm today, the vessel is scheduled to leave for Mumbai , its next destination. Queen Elizabeth has 11 decks inclusive of a state-of-the-art swimming pool, an auditorium, a gym and a restaurant. Having set sail from the UK on the 10th  of January this year, the vessel was berthed at Maldives just before resuming its journey to Colombo.
According to the SLPA officials, more than 20 such luxury carriers, had already been programmed to tie up in Colombo by the end of 2012.