Sri Lanka Tourism-Air India tap into trade tourism

• Indian arrivals grow by 26.8% in May
• Indo-Lanka trade cross $ 4 b
• Tourism marketing investment to reach 250 m in 2015

Air India Manager Commercial Jaya Sharma, General Manager Marketing Seema Srivastava, Executive Director Sales and Marketing Pankaj Kumar, Sri Lanka Tourism Chairman Rohantha Athukorala and Director SCR Indrajith De Silva

In the backdrop of Indian arrivals clocking in 38.2% growth in May and cumulative growth at 26.8% crossing 119,593 arrivals as at end May, Sri Lanka Tourism and Air India signed up a joint promotion to target the top-end of Delhi outbound travellers into Sri Lanka recently.

The sign up between the hierarchy of Air India and Sri Lanka Tourism was on the sidelines of the Air India direct flight from Delhi launch.

Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Chairman Rohantha Athukorala said trade between the countries had crossed $ 4 billion. “This means that we have very strong trading partnerships between the countries even though the numbers are skewed in India’s favour. With the partnership of Air India and Sri Lanka Tourism we want to tap into the ‘trade tourism’ segment, where the premier class customers of Air India can be reached,” said Athukorala. 

The promotion will include special air fares on business class and value upgrades on top-end boutique hotels in Sri Lanka whilst Sri Lanka Tourism will have access to the elite customers of Air India, which can create awareness of the changing dynamics of the Sri Lankan product range, said Athukorala. 

“Once the promise we sell is understood, attracting a quality customer will naturally happen,” asserted Athukorala.

Air India Executive Director Marketing Pankaj Kumar said the partnership was mutually beneficial. “We can synergise the strengths of both entities whilst giving access to Sri Lankan travellers to any part of India due to the strong connectivity of Air India. We heard about the Ramayana Roadshow that Sri Lanka Tourism is staging next month in India and also about the participation of Sri Lanka Tourism at the two large travel and tourism fairs of IITM Bangalore and OTM Hyderabad in July and August, which Air India will also support,” he added.

“Sri Lanka Tourism is injecting Rs. 240 million in 2015 as we want to target 335,000 travellers from India. The destination is registering strong growth this month, which augurs well for the country. I am very excited to launch the promotion in July in New Delhi,” added Athukorala.