Sri Lanka Tourism to ‘Celebrate Colombo’ at CFW 2015

Wednesday, 11 March 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

With overall tourism arrivals spiking up by 16.7% to 165,541 arrivals in February 2015 and with India growing by 14.1% and China by a staggering 165%, the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau have decided to power Colombo Fashion Week on the theme of ‘Celebrate Colombo’.

The Sri Lanka Promotions Bureau Chairman Rohantha Athukorala stated: “The logic of the sponsorship endorsement is that the last airport traveller exit survey revealed that almost 65% of those who visited Sri Lanka spent time in the city of Colombo. We want to take this insight and highlight the top six fine dining exclusive restaurants as well as six key visitor ‘must see’ sites to showcase the vibrancy of Colombo under the theme of Celebrate Colombo.” Founder and CEO of Colombo Fashion Week Ajay Singh stated that the six selected restaurants will feature special menus and will take special orders for the guests of Colombo Fashion Week. Another highlight will be a new mode of transport that guests can experience – “the standing scooters”, which will provide affordable and safe travel to visitors around the city and will be available from the host hotel – The Hilton Colombo. A biking trail will commence from the host hotel on Sunday at 6 a.m. to cater to the fitness-crazy Colombo residents as well. The Minister for Tourism and Sports Navin Dissanayake congratulated the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau’s creativity and recommended that a similar program should be conducted in Galle which can be promoted in key markets such as China and India so that younger generations of Indians and Chinese are attracted. The popular Fashion TV will broadcast the event to 300 million households in Europe. Ajay Singh stated that he is pleasantly surprised at the new stance of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau and was very pleased to be a part of the promotion of ‘Celebrate Colombo’ next year in China which in fact could be an extension of the proposed partnership with ‘Shanghai Fashion Week’. The Sri Lanka Tourism Bureau is targeting 200,000 visitors from China, which will oust UK from the market portfolio in 2015 voiced Athukorala.