Sri Lanka welcomes one millionth tourist for 2014

Friday, 29 August 2014 00:53 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Achieving another remarkable milestone in the country’s booming tourism industry, Sri Lanka Tourism welcomed the arrival of 1,000,000th tourist for year 2014 at the Bandaranaike International Airport yesterday. Sri Lanka Tourism officials including Managing Director Rumy Jauffer and representatives from travel and tourism industry warmly welcomed Joshua Gladstein, who arrived with Sophie Nathan, via UL 504 Sri Lankan Airlines flight from London at 12.45 hrs, as the one millionth tourist in 2014 to Sri Lanka. A special cultural dance performance was held at BIA to welcome the couple and Sri Lanka Tourism offered a special gift and a complimentary package to the lucky tourist couple who arrived today to visit the country’s well-known attractions. With the arrival of the one millionth tourist yesterday, the booming tourism industry of Sri Lanka has shown early signs of achieving its goal of 1.5 million tourist arrivals target set for 2014, adding another groundbreaking record in tourism industry. The key focus for tourism industry for the next two years is to attract a number of 2.5 million arrivals by the end of 2016. This strategic development plan of Sri Lanka Tourism will achieve its core objectives, serving the needs of all stakeholders and ensuring the economic benefits of the industry distributed to a larger cross section of the society being in line with the national effort of making Sri Lanka the emerging ‘Wonder of Asia’. Pix by Kumarasiri Prasad, Airport Correspondent