Sri Lanka Tourism welcomes trade ‘fam’ tour from Russia and Ukraine

SLTPB Marketing Director Dushan Wickremasuriya addressing the gathering

Welcoming the delegation

In order to encourage more tourists from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) organised a Familiarisation Tour for a group of twelve travel agents from Russia and Ukraine.  

The main purpose was to convey the messages to the travelers in the CIS region that Sri Lanka is a safe and an attractive destination for tourism, filled with a myriad of holiday opportunities to choose from. Another key opportunity is the direct connectivity from Russia to Colombo, without any transits.

SLTPB said considering the importance of attracting more tourists to Sri Lanka by creating great awareness on the destination, it was decided to showcase the tourism products and services to the foreign consumers by giving them the opportunity to experience a tour in Sri Lanka with the purpose of attracting more tourists from Russia and Ukraine, also encouraging them to promote the destination among potential travelers as the best destinations to visit during their holiday season.  

Travel Agent Familiarisation tours have been identified as an important activity to invest in the trade as the travel community is seeking the advice of the travel agents/operators in organising their tours.  It has been identified the importance of targeting tour operators in the travel trade as they are the focal point in promoting Sri Lanka to the travelers. The visitors were impressed by the beauty and culture of the destination, and most importantly, the warm hospitality of its people, for which Sri Lanka is known as the ‘’Land of smiles’’. 

During their stay in Sri Lanka they visited some of the main attractions in Sri Lanka and some hotels. Furthermore, SLTPB gave the opportunity to develop new business contacts to promote the destination for the local travel trade partners and hoteliers by arranging a successful B2B session for over 70 Sri Lankan Destination Management Companies (DMCs) and hoteliers, where they participated with much interest and enthusiasm. 

At the airport on their arrival