I like to be an optimist. No matter what may happen around us, I would like to retain feelings of hope I have for all human-kind and on a more intimate level for you, for me, the newborn and the to-be-born. Yet, what has already happened around me, happening now and may happen in the ...

The World Tourism Day was celebrated in grand style at a special ceremony held in Colombo yesterday with the participation of all stake holders related to travel and tourism industry. The main event took place at the tourism zone near Beira Lake, called “Road to Paradise” with the participation of Minister Basil Rajapaksa – the ...

Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa met high level business delegations led by the French Ambassador and the British High Commissioner in Sri Lanka respectively with a view to promoting investments from France and the United Kingdom. Addressing the business community that included some of the leading enterprises in the fields of insurance, garments, tourism and ...

Last week I received an invite for an ‘Inventors Day Celebration’ in one of the leading schools in the country and the master in charge shared a thought that I felt was a cutting edge idea. Apparently, every one of us is an inventor in some part of our daily life. The issue is that ...

By Cheranka Mendis Tapping into the high-end tourism market Russia would help boost tourism numbers in large volumes and drive the industry to surpass the expected arrivals of 750,000 by the end of the year to over 800,000. SriLankan Airlines yesterday made its first direct flight to Moscow, the financial and political centre of Russia. ...

Stock Broking firm Capital Alliance suggests that the 2.6 million tourist arrivals target isn’t a pipedream but achievable though it will be only by 2020, which is 4 years later than the Government and industry set timeline of 2016. “The Government projects 2.5m arrivals in 2016, but the industry will lack the rooms and trained ...

A high level delegation from Sri Lanka Tourism is currently attending the World Tourism Conference in Kota-Kinabalu in Malaysia. Deputy Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena met the World Tourism Organisation Secretary General Dr. Taleb Rifai during the conference. They discussed avenues to develop

By Srilal Miththapala Just over a year ago, I penned an article entitled “Sri Lanka Tourism — Quo Vadis” where I raised the issues and challenges Sri Lanka was facing in developing its tourism industry. Of course, that was during the latter stages of the war, and now after the ending of the war, there ...

Tourism in Sri Lanka receives a major boost in Belgium. Jetair, one of the leading tour operators in Belgium, has introduced Sri Lanka as a new winter destination. It will operate weekly charter flights from Brussels to Colombo commencing October this year. The formal announcement was made at this year’s ‘Jetair Fly summer road show ...

I.I.F.A. awards will create the credibility and believability factor,” Dileep Mudadeniya tells Benchmark. “The challenge (to deliver) is much greater than before. We actually anticipated and made preparations for this mini boom. I feel that it’s important when you are running an organisation to anticipate and work on scenario planning so that you have your structure, ...