“Sri Lanka Shines in Shanghai” - Joint Mega Promotion Enters Shanghai to Attract Chinese Visitors to Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Tourism is all set to execute the second Joint Mega Promotion campaign in China called “Sri Lanka Shines in Shanghai ”, which will be launched in the Shanghai City from the 01st to 06th July 2014 followed by the major success of its first event held in Beijing last year. This Joint Mega Promotion campaign with joint efforts from Public and Private sectors has been initiated under the advice of H.E the President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The joint mega promotional campaign, an event organized in combination of the Public and Private sectors of the Sri Lanka is coming to China for the second time following the success of the first phase of this campaign held in Beijing last year.
The event is organized under the guidance of Hon. Basil Rajapaksa, the Minister of Economic Development who will grace the event in Shanghai with his presence at “Sri Lanka Shines in Shanghai” joint mega promotional campaign.
Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism Mr. Bhashwara Gunarathna, and Managing Director of Sri Lanka Tourism Mr. Rummy Jauffer along with Sri Lankan Travel agents, Tour Operators, Hoteliers and Government Organisations will represent tourism industry of Sri Lanka at this mega promotional campaign in Shanghai. “Sri Lanka Shines in Shanghai” joint mega promotional campaign held under the guidance of Ministry of Economic Development is heavily backed by Sri Lankan Embassy in Beijing and Sri Lankan Consulate General in Shanghai.
“Sri Lanka Shines in Shanghai” will kick off on the 01st July 2014 at Pudong Shangri La Hotel in Shanghai with a Press Conference. Over 120 leading Chinese Media representing electronic and print will participate for this fully fledged media conference. Sri Lanka Tourism will present the “Sri Lanka Shines in Beijing” event and its objectives to the Chinese media at this event.
The second major event under this promotional campaign would be a ”B2B Travel & Tourism Forum” which will be held on the 04th July at Pudong Shangri La Hotel targeting the travel and trade participants. Over 200 Chinese travel agents and representatives of trade institutions are expected to meet with more than 40 Sri Lankan leisure and trade sector operators who will arrive in Beijing for the upcoming event. The event will also see Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau in collaboration with Sri Lanka Inbound Tour operators Association of Sri Lanka, introducing a special holiday package for Chinese travelers, who would like to arrive in Sri Lanka.
The B2B Travel Forum will be followed by a glamorous ‘Sri Lankan Night’ which will feature a series of activities highlighting the Island’s culture and traditions, at Pudong Shangri La Hotel on 04th July from 6.00 p.m. onwards. “Sri Lankan night” is a colourful event, which will feature cultural shows reflecting the unique Sri Lankan identity. Over 500 high profile Chinese guest including diplomats, Chinese government officers, Travel Trade Businessman, media, Celebrities and travel agents are invited for this colourful night. This event includes mouth-watering Sri Lankan Cuisine by leading Chefs of Sri Lanka. The vibrant cultural dances of the night will be performed by the students of Kirindiwela central college of Sri Lanka and Choreographed by Master Lionel Guanarathna.
“Sri Lanka Shines in Shanghai” will gather further momentum, with a shopping mall promotional campaign to be held at “Nanjing Lu Century Square” of Shanghai, running up to three days, starting from the 04th July to 06th July.
The Shopping Mall activation at “Nanjing Lu Century Square” shopping mall will see Sri Lankan dancers, drummers taking the stage to entertain the Chinese public, while a large number of Sri Lankan firms will display their products and services such as tea, spa, ceramic-ware, Gem and Jewellery, garments , handicrafts etc. during the campaign. Among the exhibitors would be the Island’s leading Gem traders who display the worlds best blue Sapphire’s among many other gem stones at this event. The Island’s hoteliers and tour operators too would make their presence at the activation campaign, while Chinese public will also get the opportunity to taste the Sri Lankan cuisines, from the Sri Lankan food stalls that will be established at the shopping mall. During the shopping mall campaign, Sri Lanka Tourism along with the Tourism Partners will offer free holiday packages, for the lucky Chinese men and women who can grab the opportunity by entering into the competitions held during the Shopping mall activations.


In line with the events under “Sri Lanka Shines in Shanghai”, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau will execute an major advertising campaign to promote Sri Lanka through outdoor advertising such as Led Hoardings, Light box advertising and newspaper advertisements, Radio jingles, Web marketing and also a PR campaign to aware and gain the attention of the Chinese travel and trade companies over Sri Lanka. The campaign will be exclusive to Shanghai city and aims to reach the target audience in Shanghai through the outdoor promotional campaign which will roll out during and prior to the event.
“Sri Lanka Shines in Shanghai” promotional campaign held under the guidance of Minister of Economic Development Hon. Basil Rajapaksa is a major promotional tool Sri Lanka is using towards attracting 2.5 million tourists per annum by 2016, out of the expected 2.5 million tourists to the country; Sri Lanka is planning to attract 275,000 Chinese travellers into the country.
Sri Lanka tourism, which has identified the growing tendency of Chinese to travel overseas, has conducted a series of promotional campaigns during the year 2013, targeting those potential visitors. The key among them is the first joint mega promotional campaign which took place in Beijing called “Sri Lanka Shines in Beijing” and participation in major travel fairs held in China, such as the BITE, CITM , CIT and GITF and tourism road shows in Beijing , Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xian, Kunming and Chengdu. Under the promotional strategy, SLTPB also invited and hosted journalists and Tour operators from China to Sri Lanka.
Chinese tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka is on a steady rise, as the country has received 43,885 Chinese tourists during the first five months of this year, which is a year on year increase of 139.6%. The latest jump shows encouraging signs as the Government of Sri Lanka is campaigning vigorously to capture a slice out of the growing Chinese outbound tourism market, which during the year 2013 in total stood at 102 million tourists.
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International Conference on Global Public Health 2014

Organized by the International Centre for Research Development in collaboration with the Umeå Universitet and the College of Community Physicians of Sri Lanka (CCPSL) the International Conference on Global Public Health will be held at Goldi Sands Hotel in Negombo Sri Lanka on 3rd and 4th July 2014.










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Sri Lanka Tourism Arrivals Increase 20.3% in May 2014

Sri Lanka Tourism Arrivals Increase 20.3% in May 2014

Sri Lanka's tourist arrivals recorded a growth of 20.3 % in May 2014 compared to the same period in year 2013. During the month of May, 2014 recorded 90,046 tourists arrivals in the country compared to the 74,838 arrived in May 2013 which is highest in foreign tourist history for month of May .
The cumulative total of foreign tourist arrival for first five months of 2014 is 624,178 giving record of a 26.5 percent increase from the 493,294 came during the corresponding period in 2013.
Most of the tourists arrived from Western Europe with 200,605 tourist arrivals in the first five months of this year recording an 18 % increase over corresponding 2013 figures. France recording 31.2%, Germany 22.6% followed by UK topped the list of Western Europe. Arrivals from South Asia, the other region from where most of the tourists come, increased by 19.4 percent in the year with 145,373 tourists visiting the island while, arrivals from India increased 22.3 percent to 64,327 in May.
In the first five months of the year 108,867 East Asians arrived in the island, an increase of 51.9 percent. Number of Chinese tourists arriving in the island jumped by an impressive 139.6 percent and recorded 43,885.
Arrivals from Eastern Europe increased 46.6 percent with the arrival of 82,271 tourists. Most of the arrivals from Eastern Europe were from Russia with 36,655 arrivals increasing by 77.4 percent.
Arrivals from North America rose by 12.3 percent with 28,699 visitors for the first five months in the year while Tourist arrivals from Middle East rose in May by 34.8 percent to 5,016 and for the year 28,708 tourists arrived from the region.
Notably Foreign tourist arrival from China reached second highest pushing second traditional market of UK in to third place.
In the first five months of the year, 20,539 Australians arrived in the country, an 11.1 percent increase from the previous year.
Sri Lanka has earned US$ 814.9 million from tourism in the first five months of this year, an increase of 34 percent compared to last year.
Sri Lanka met its tourist arrival target of 1.2 million for the year 2013 with the numbers up by 26.7 percent from the 1,005,605 arrived in 2012 and earning US$ 1.718 billion in 2013.
The Tourism authorities have rolled out a global mega promotional campaign during this year in order to keep the momentum going to achieve 2.5 million tourist arrivals target by 2016 , making Sri Lanka, the emerging Wonder of Asia.





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Sri Lanka Wins “Best Booth Design Award” at the Korea World Travel Fair 2014


Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau bagged the “Best Booth Design Award” at Korea’s largest international travel fair, Korea World Travel Fair (KOTFA) held last week in Seoul from 29th May to June 01st, 2014. Sri Lanka Tourism stall stood elegant at the exhibition, with grand décor of culture, beaches, wild life, festivals, water sports, Buddhist attractions of Sri Lanka. Among the crowd of visitors that attracted the stall were the representatives from national tourist organizations, tour operators, tour & travel agents, and online travel agencies. More than 60 countries participated for KOTFA this year representing Asia, Europe, Oceania, America, Africa and Middle East. Destinations such as Russia, Malaysia, China, Egypt, Thailand, Maldives, Sweden, Kuwait, South Africa, India were among the international participants at the KOTFA 2014.
For the second consecutive year, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau together with representatives from the travel and hotel industry in Sri Lanka participated at the KOTFA Travel fair 2014. Sri Lanka Mission in Seoul facilitated the participation of Sri Lanka Tourism at the event.
KOTFA is considered the largest travel trade show in Korea, connecting the global travel fraternity for more than two decades. KOTFA is also the only travel show in KOREA with a balanced mix of travel trade, corporate and general visitors. It is the best platform for marketing to the KOREA travel trade, MICE segment and tourists. Every year, KOTFA draws participants from National Tourist Organizations, State Government Tourism Departments, Tour Operators, Travel Agents, Hotel & Resorts, Airlines, Online Travel Agencies and many other segments of the travel and tourism industry.
More than 4800 exhibitors and 120,600 trade visitors from 60 countries and domestic gathered for OTM ,making it the perfect meeting place for networking, face-to-face interaction, deals of tomorrow and building successful long-term business relationships.
Sri Lanka Tourism, under the guidance of the Minister of Economic Development, has identified Korea as an emerging market for Sri Lanka with high potential for growth. Sri Lanka Tourism is all prepared to roll out a mega outdoor promotional campaign in Korea within the next month with the aim of increasing destination awareness among Korean travelers.
Within the first quarter of year 2014 Korean market arrivals recorded a 16.7% increase compared to the same period last year. Korean Air started operating direct flights to Sri Lanka from 2013 onwards securing easy passage for Korean Travelers to Sri Lanka. With all these promotions in place Sri Lanka Tourism hopes to reach the goal of 2.5 million visitors by the year 2016.





















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KOTFA 2014 in Korea

Sri Lanka Tourism Participates at Korea World Travel Fair
KOTFA 2014

KOTFA is the leading Travel Fair organized by the Korean World Travel Fair Committee, that is being held annually in Korea having participation of more than 500 travel related organizations from over 60 countries (KOTFA 2013 Report) and the only travel fair being held in Seoul, Hosted by the Korean Tourism Association.


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Sigiriya (Sri Lanka) Featured on Ancient Aliens




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Things to in sri lanka



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Documentary on sri lanka

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PARADISE CALLING SONG



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Legacy Sri Lanka



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FESTIVE

With a population composed with many a races and religions, Sri Lanka is never short of festivals and celebrations. Every month brings a celebration either religious or cultural importance, making Sri Lanka one of the countries with highest number of celebrations and holidays. 

The Sinhala-Tamil New year festival in April is the most important cultural festival in the country. The festival marks the beginning of the New Year and the end of harvesting season. A lengthy holiday and a table full of oily traditional delicacies like kokis, makes the New Year festival one of the long awaited festivals in the country.













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