Sri Lanka Tourism shines with awards at 31st Korea World Travel Fair

Having foreseen the ideal opportunity to promote Sri Lanka as the best destination in South Asia, the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau made arrangements to participate at the 31st Korea World Travel Fair for the fourth consecutive year along with 10 local partners of the tourism industry.

A couple of road shows were also organised in Seoul and Busan in collaboration with the Sri Lankan Embassy in South Korea.

KOTFA (Korea World Travel Fair) known as the biggest international travel fair in Korea, has been held for 30 years. In collaboration with UNWTO and PATA, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Korea Tourism Organization, Visit Korea Committee and Korean Air sponsored the fair. KOTFA offers a huge open market for mutual relationship among tourism businesses at home and abroad for enhancing the competitiveness of domestic and overseas tourism.

The featured attraction of the Sri Lanka Pavilion this year was the performance of the cultural dance troupe which was an eye-catching attraction at the main stage of KOTFA 2016. Visitors to the Sri Lanka Pavilion were welcomed with a cup of Ceylon tea.

At the conclusion of the event, Sri Lanka tourism was awarded twice for Best Publicity and for the Best Performance among exhibiting nations.

Additionally, Sri Lanka Tourism in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Embassy organised a Sri Lankan Cultural evening to mark the celebration of the birthday of two elephants, namely Gajaba and Sugala, donated by Sri Lanka to the Seoul Zoo with a view to promoting Sri Lanka among the large number of Korean visitors to the zoo.

The Sri Lankan cultural performance team presented their performance to decorate the event. In addition to that, an art competition was also held for children to submit drawings of Sri Lankan elephants which were also displayed at the event venue. In addition to the general audience, the tourism related entities in Korea and Media personals were also invited by the mission. The venue was decorated with banners with the images of Sri Lanka. Two elephants Gajaba and Sugala were treated with fruits and milk while the visitors were served with Sri Lankan food items and Ceylon tea at the conclusion of the event.