Travel & Tourism Exhibition “Leisure 2012″ in Moscow
19th – 22th Spetember 2012
18th International Trade Fair for Travel & Tourism “Leisure 2012” was held on September 19-22, 2012 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.
14 companies namely; Exotic Global Holidays, Club Bentota /Mount Lavinia Hotel, Maldiviana Holidays, Connaissance de Ceylon, Aitken Spence Travels, Tangerine Tours, Concord Exotic Voyages, Jetwing Travels & Hotels, Walkers Tours, Nkar Travel & Tours, Citrus Leisure, Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts, Serendib Leasure and Serene Pavilions 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 one year of regular operations in the Moscow –Colombo route. Mr. Nishantha Wickramasinghe, the Chairman of SriLankan Airlines graced the occasion by arriving to Moscow. He also visited the Sri Lanka stand and held several meetings with tour operators and hoteliers in the Leisure exhibition.
For one year the SriLankan Airlines has operated 104 flights and has carried approximately 11,000 passengers. 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. Nishantha Wickramasinghe, the Chairman of SriLankan Airlines, 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 by15.8%. Almost 623,000 people visited the country. Among them, around 15,000 tourists were from Russia, which is 50.2% 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 and the English version of the Catalogue on Sri Lanka Tourism. Both projects are at the final stages and will be published before long. An Audio guide and the Catalogue on Sri Lanka Tourism in the Russian Language are already in circulation.
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.
