“Positive Transformation” - Sri Lanka's theme at ITB 2015
The Sri Lanka Pavilion with 52 consisting of top Sri Lanka tourism delegates attracting strong demand post the new government came to place which has a western bias received a warm welcome was inaugurated by the minister for Tourism and Sports Navin Disasanayake in the presence of Sri Lankan Ambassordor for Germany and Switzerland Karunatilleka Amunugama and chairman Sri Lanka tourism promotions bureau chairman Dr. Athukorala and Sri Lanka tourism development authority chairman Paddy Vithana.
On the 8th January 2015, the people of this Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka voted in a new government that promised good governance, financial responsibility of public funds, equality of development, religion harmony, respect to human rights and inclusive development and we have already started delivering this promise to the people of Sri Lanka said minister Dissanayake. We now want to understand the thinking of the private sector better and there by aggressive develop the tourism promotional agenda in the key markets he said.
The chairman Sri Lanka promotional bureau dr. rohantha Athukorala voiced The latest data from Google indicate that Sri Lanka has crossed 23 million on travel related searches in 2014 globally, and for Germany it has crossed 1.5 million in 2014 whilst in 2013 it was to 1.3 million. On this backdrops Sri Lanka registered 85,470 visitors in 2013 whilst 102, 977 visited Sri Lanka in 2014 which tells us the opportunity the country holds for Sri Lanka. The gap between awareness Vs conversions is an opportunity that Sri Lanka Tourism is working on with different strategies like taking part in ITB , visiting Journalist Programm and trade familiarization tours and in the futile regional roadshows to name a few strategies of Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau. The worlds largest travel fair will continue till the 8th of March and the the footfall is forecasted to be over a million visitors from all over the world.
