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Wednesday, November 10, 2010 - 06.15 GMT |
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Sri Lanka to
promote nature tourism |
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Sri Lanka Tourism announced a new campaign at the World Travel Market 2010 in London which focus on eight key products, with wildlife to be heavily promoted for the first time.
The first seven promote Sri Lanka's heritage, beaches, sports and adventure, wellness, scenery, friendly people and festival tourism.
But wildlife tourism has not been exploited enough up until now, said Chairman of the tourist board, Dr Nalaka Godahewa.
"The product we are going to start talking about aggressively is wildlife," he said. "In Sri Lanka, you can see both the largest mammal on earth, the elephant, and the largest mammal in the sea, the blue whale, in one day," he added.
The tourist board hopes to promote nature tourism, with a focus on bird watching and butterflies.
International arrivals this year is around 700,000, up from 580,000. By 2016, the country hopes to attract 2.5 million annual visitors, and a further 30,000 beds are being added over the next three years.
Dr. Godahewa confirmed that the UK is to be a greater focus for the tourist board in 2011.
Sri Lankan Airlines chairman Nishantha Wickramasinghe said the airline is hoping to secure a slot at Gatwick to increase its UK flights from 14 per week to 21. Sri Lankan is also in the process of upgrading the seats on its aircraft by introducing flatbeds in business class among other features.
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