Chairperson Sri Lanka Tourism, Kimarli Fernando, Manoj Gunawardena - Regional Head of Europe & America SriLankan Airlines, Sri Lankan High Commission officials and some participants at the WTM opening. Picture courtesy: Nalin Perera London to Colombo YouTube Channel 
Sri Lankan Tourism stakeholders will be vaccinated for their third COVID-19 booster dose ensuring their safety as from this month. “This success has amazed many people and has come to high praise,’’ Chairperson Sri Lanka Tourism, Kimarli Fernando told Daily News Business from ExCel London after opening the WTM Sri Lanka stand.
“The successful COVID-19 vaccination program which has now passed the UN norm (of fully vaccinating 70%of the population for the second jab) is a strong marketing tool for us.” She said that the UK market is very important to Sri Lanka as it is bringing the second largest number of arrivals and in terms of revenue it’s the number one.
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| Dr. Lakmini Mendis from Sri Lankan High Commission with Amrith Singh WTM |
“We are very excited to attend the WTM and are using this platform to send the message across that Sri Lanka is fully open and no protocols are needed to visit Sri Lanka. “For fully vaccinated travelers you just need advanced visa/ hotel booking and PCR tests to enter Sri Lanka.”
She said that this positive sentiment that ‘Sri Lanka is open’ would be further spread through popular media channels like BBC and Sky news. There was also tremendous response from the UK market for diverse travel packages to Sri Lanka and these were family and high-end and is a very good signal towards tourism recovery in Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, one of the leading travel agents promoting Sri Lanka in the UK, Amrit Singh Managing Director Trans Indus (leisure firm), London.said that they have started marketing Sri Lanka again and there is tremendous response. “Direct flight connectivity, peace and high standard of hotels and diversity of travel products were some of the key factors that beckon UK travelers to Sri Lanka.”
She also said that the British pound is very strong against the Sri Lanka rupee and this too is helping them to market Sri Lanka.
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