Sri Lanka Tourism continues to show its capability and potential as a creative and a compact destination with vivid diversity, as they received the ‘’Excellent Booth Award’’ and ‘’Excellent Organization Award’’ at the China International Travel Mart (CITM) 2017, which was successfully held from 17th to 19th November 2017 at Kunming Dianchi International Convention & Exhibition Centre, Kunming, China. Twenty-three Sri Lankan companies along with Sri Lankan Airlines shared the Sri Lanka stand at the travel fair.
The roadshow was well attended by a total of 178 guests including 12 high profile media stations in Beijing and 147 leading tour operators in Beijing.
All media and travel agencies expressed that they take tremendous interest in promoting Sri Lanka Tourism and selling Sri Lanka Travel products and packages to local people as well.
Similarly, a press conference was also held regarding direct flights between Southern China and Colombo, with direct flights between Colombo and Guangzhou. Shanika Dissanayake, Consul General of Sri Lanka to Guanzhou graced the event, amidst a distinguished gathering including Udaya Nanayakkara, Chairman, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, Zen Yinru, Chairperson of Tourism Administration of Guandong province, Chinthaka Liyanaarachchi, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, and a representative of Sri Lankan Airlines.
China International Travel Mart is the largest professional travel show in Asia, including a gathering of the world’s tourism circles. CITM is an annual event that is held in Shanghai and Kunming alternately.
Traditionally, there has been an year to year increase in Chinese tourist arrivals till 2017, where a slight reduction was indicated during the first half of 2017, mainly due to the Katunayake International Airport partial closure during the First four months of the year, due to runway refurbishment. Participants in CITM come from all sectors of the travel industry, including international and domestic tourist organizationsincluding China’s 31 provinces, autonomous regions and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, travel agencies, hotels, airlines and related travel companies.
Kunming is a city which has direct air connectivity by Sri Lankan Air Lines & China Eastern and also grater options of transit air connections by many other international airlines, which provides a healthy environment to promote Sri Lanka tourism in China.
Sri Lanka Tourism also took part in the Beijing International Travel Mart (BITM) 2017 which was held from 16th to 18th November 2017 at the China National Convention Center in Beijing, China.
Since the out bound tourism sector of China is growing rapidly at an annual average growth rate of 18%, the potential of attracting more numbers of high end Chinese tourists to Sri Lanka is very high.
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