Thursday, 9 January 2014 00:00
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By Cheranka Mendis
A comprehensive tourism guidebook covering all parts of the history of the country, festivals and cultural icons, as well as key attractions, places to stay and instructions for tourists was launched yesterday, prepared under the leadership of Sri Lankan Ambassador in Russia Udayanga Weeratunga.
Originally printed in Russian for the Russian tour operators, the book was used in a series of promotional campaigns to market Sri Lanka as the preferred tourism destination among Russians travellers last year. Close to 20,000 booklets were distributed during each road show conducted in Russia in 2013.
The translated book will be distributed among Sri Lanka tourism stakeholders including Sri Lanka missions in overseas countries. Through the missions the book is set to reach travel and tour operators in key tourism markets in Sri Lanka.
Launching the book last morning, copies were handed over to Sri Lanka Tourism Chairman Bhaswara Gunaratne, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Rumy Jauffer, Sri Lanka Tourism Director General Dr. D.S. Jayaweera and several other industry stakeholders. The first copy of the 296 page guidebook was handed over to Economic Development minister Basil Rajapaksa.
The book will soon be translated into Mandarin to be used in the industry’s effort to expand in to China and open up the country for a larger number of Chinese tourists. A pdf version of the copy will also soon be available online on the Sri Lanka Tourism website.
