To Russia, with love – Sri Lanka Tourism pushes for arrivals

In early 2015 there was a decline in interest for global travel as per ATOR-Analytical Service reporting, which showed that tourism exports to different countries decreased on average by 35% compared with last year.

“But the good news is that we see a turnaround in the months of July and August at a positive 2.5% growth for travel to Sri Lanka. This has led to the marketing drive in Russia with 13 top industry professionals taking part in the Leisure and Travel Fair 2015 staged in Moscow,” commented Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Chairman Dr. Rohantha Athukorala.

ATOR analysts noted that it was the overall economic situation that was seriously affecting the demand for tours: In July 2015 the price of basic consumer goods, food and services rose by 8-25%, while the salary of the Russians became 0.3% lower than in July 2014. The demand for labour had fallen by 22%, while the number of job-seekers had increased by 34%, which explains the low consumer pull from tourism, said Athukorala.

“Sri Lanka Tourism took the world record attempt of the world’s largest tea party globally at the exhibition show casing how the world record set in India was broken when the 32,682nd and 32,683rd cups of tea were consumed by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on the sidelines of the Esala Perahera in Kandy and now we are going to launch the second phase of the project globally. This is the market buzz required in a destination which must then be supported with the global advertising campaign,” he added.