ලෝක සංචාරක ප්රදර්ශනය 2014 මොස්කව්
Travel & Tourism Exhibition “Leisure 2014″ in Moscow
16th – 20th Spetember 2014
20th International Trade Fair for Travel & Tourism “Leisure 2014” was held on September 16-20, 2014 at the IEC ”Crocus Expo” in Moscow, Russia. Sri Lanka Embassy in Moscow organized the Sri Lanka stand with the assistance of Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau. 17 companies namely; Jetwing Travels, Aitken Spence Travels, Citrus Leisure, Bernard Tours, Serendib Leisure, Green Holidays, Taj Hotels, Exotic Global Holidays, Exotic Global International, Explore Asia, Walkers Tours, Tangerine Tours, Jhon Keells Hotels, Connaissance de Ceylon, Siddhalepha Resort & Spa, Concord Exotic Voyages and Viluxer Holidays were presented at the Sri Lanka stand. The representatives of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau and the Embassy of Sri Lanka also took part at the exhibition.
Special area was given to the national carrier SriLankan Airlines within the Sri Lanka stand which celebrated 3 year of regular operations in the Moscow –Colombo route.
For 3 year the SriLankan Airlines the route Colombo-Moscow-Colombo is of much success with over 80% seat occupancy. Hence the airline considers the possibility of increasing the weekly number of flights from 2 to 4 in the nearest future. Meanwhile, additional flights will be on operation during New Year holidays.
His Excellency the Ambassador Udayanga Weeratunga, and Mr. Chandra Wickramasinghe, the Chairman of Connaissance de Ceylon opened the Sri Lanka stand with lighting the traditional oil lamp with other participants. Delivering the speeches at the opening ceremony, they highlighted the increment of tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka. During the first 8 months of this year the total tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka raised by 23%, 1,001,643 people visited the country. Among them, 44,627 tourists were from Russia and 20,294 tourists were Ukraine which is 68% growth compared with last year.
His Excellency the Ambassador Udayanga Weeratunga also shared his future plans on tourism promotion with the representatives of the tourist companies and the hotels of Sri Lanka; particularly, about the video guide for the Russian tourists. This projects are at the final stages and will be published before long. This year published the English version of the Catalog on Sri Lanka Tourism.
His Excellency the Ambassador wished all the participants good luck and expressed that he expects the Tour and travel operators along with the hoteliers will do their best to continue attracting tourists to the country to achieve the target of 2.5 million tourists by 2016.
