Sri Lanka, The true wonder of Asia !

Lonely Planet nominates Sri Lanka as the number one destination in the world to travel in 2013, lauding the island nation’s heritage sites, exciting wildlife, lush landscapes, pristine beaches, unique cultural festivals & scrumptious food.

Sri Lanka, a country with a recorded rich history of more than 2500 years has many heritage sites and has colonial historical architecture everywhere in the country since The Portuguese and Dutch once waged proxy wars here & by 1802 the island was a British colony.

It notes the successful conclusion of the most recent 30 years conflict, which eventually ended winning peace for the nation, has open doors for a greater economic development.

Soon after the conflict ended Sri Lankan tourism has grown impressively, with a growth of 46% in 2010 followed by further growth of 30% in 2011, 17.5 % in 2012 the growing trend is keep going up with 16.8 % up to October 2013.

With those increases, the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority has outlined a plan to reach a 45,000 hotel room capacity by 2016, when the total number of annual tourists is expected to reach 2.5 million. Special focus & effects are been put out to enhance the service quality

Recently top hotel chains such as Sheraton, Marriott & Shangri La have announced plans for new investments in Sri Lanka. Currently approximately 2000 rooms have been shut for heavy refurbishments & renovations.

The virgin beaches of east cost of Sri Lanka are now blessed with quite a few developments of hotels reaching out to approximately 1000 rooms.

Sri Lanka offers visitors a wide variety of unique venues, from broad white beaches to mountain vistas, wildlife parks teaming with elephants, leopards and more, rolling tea plantations, spas, adventure tourism, surfing and ancient UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

With a trend setting for increase in tourism,  Sri Lanka has received a number of favorable travel reviews since 2010, Number of world renounced papers & magazines have rated Sri Lanka to be a promising tourist destination with New York times ranking as the number one place to visit in 2010. National Geographic Traveler magazine has identified Sri Lanka among its top six destinations for world travelers in 2012.

Thanks You !

... Happiness will never come to those who don't appreciate what they already have ...

 

By Dhanushka Wijeyekoon – Assistant Marketing Manager
NKAR Travels & Tours (Pvt) Ltd
Sri Lanka

2013-2014 Financial year 1st Quarter too many overseas visits for Marketing & Promotions

It is indeed a busy 1st Quarter in terms of international market development. I had to visit 2 times to Singapore ones to Malaysia, ones to India & 2 times to China covering 3 cities (Beijing, Shanghai & Xian)   in line with the Sri Lanka tourism promotion bureau schedule & our companies promotional plan.

It was indeed pleasure to see a very high potential & demand in those markets to Sri Lanka in terms of Inbound tourism in both Leisure & MICE sections.
By looking at the qualitative & Quantitative factors I am sure that Sri Lanka will surpass the per set tourist arrival  targets & the tourism industry will create more & more employment opportunities to educated Sri Lankans & tourism sector will give a significant amount of quality inputs to SL economy too.

Dhanushka Wijeyekoon
Assistant Marketing Manager
NKAR Travels & Tours Pvt Ltd
Sri Lanka

Don't stop when you Tired, Stop when you Done !

Year 2012 was full with world wide Corporate Travel

Inline with the recent developments & high demand to Sri Lanka in terms of inbound tourism in both Leisure & MICE travel I was travailing around the world for new business developments & public relations. It was challenging task with lots of responsibilities with sharp deadlines.

In the month of February I started from Israe for IMTM 2012 & on the same month I visited India covering Mumbai & Delhi for OTM 2012 which was very successful  visits in terms of Inbound business & both are International Travel Trade exhibitions.

Again in the month of March I visited Abu Dhabi for a MICE Tourism Trade fair GIBTM 2012 & it was full of international participation.

In the month of June I visited South Korea to Attend KOTFA 2012 a Travel trade exhibition in Seoul, S'Korea is still a new territory for Sri Lankan inbound tourism but with Great potential & investments from both governments  for the betterment of economic development.

Thailand & Singapore again are very potential markets in terms if inbound to Sri Lanka & I visited in the month of July to establish relationships with business partners in both countries & the visit was a success. 

Malaysia is another lucrative destination which I visited in the month of August with preset appointments with Local outbound DMCs to discuss mutually benefiting business opportunities.
All in all the experience is highly valuable & helped me to improve my professional personality as well as knowledge to face challenges with utter confidence.

Thank You !!

Dhanushka Wijeyekoon
Assistant Marketing Manager
NKAR Travels & Tours Pvt Ltd
Sri Lanka.