Sri Lanka Tourism Blog

French travel agents are visiting Sri Lanka on a tourism promotion which includes what’s billed as a treasure hunt where they search for clues and discover the island’s hidden charms, the Tourist Board said Monday.

The visit by over 40 French travel agents and journalists comes with the French Foreign Ministry’s complete lifting of a travel ban on Sri Lanka that was prompted by an escalation in the ethnic war.

Most travel advisories in key tourism generating markets in Europe have already been relaxed and the tourism office hopes Australia and Canada too will follow suit, Mudadeniya said.

Tourist arrivals from the countries with relaxed advisories have already picked up and traffic that was supposed to reach Myanmar has started to flow to the island, tourism officials said.

The one week visit by the French group will consist of familiarization tours and events such as cycling, trekking, canoeing and walking.

With the group are five journalists from France, Dileep Mudadeniya, Additional Director, and Tourism Promotional Bureau told LBO.

The promotional event which is in progress, Mudadeniya said, is supposed to get wide coverage in the media in France.

“That will give them enormous confidence to come to Sri Lanka,” he said.

The ‘Treasure Hunt’ is meant to enable the visitors to discover exceptional tourist sites by interacting with the local communities.

Sri Lanka predicts tourist numbers will recover in the next three months as bookings for the forthcoming winter season look good, officials said.

They expect the tourism sector to benefit from the diversion of tourists from Myanmar which has been rocked by violent public protests that included Buddhist monks against 45 years of military rule.

The protests were followed by a bloody crackdown that left 13 persons including a Japanese journalist, dead.

Sri Lanka has been experiencing a downturn in foreign visitors this year with arrivals slipping 15.5 percent in August.

The total number of arrivals from January to August this year has fallen 22.6 percent to 313,675 from 405,488 last year.

Sri Lanka received 559,603 visitors the whole of last year.

On October 02^nd , the French Government officially lifted the adverse Travel Advisory affecting Sri Lanka, with immediate effect. The French Government has communicated with citizens that “traveling to Sri Lanka is as good as Travelling to UK or any other similar country.” this is a green light for Sri Lanka lovers to visit our country.

The Sri Lanka Tourist board had invited an independent Security team from France to visit Sri Lanka and assess the security situation here. The French Government acting on this report has completely relaxed the adverse travel advisory which has been imposed in Sri Lanka on 2006. However, the North and East have not been ruled out as insecure zones.

The Minister for Toursim Milinda Moragoda and his team were able to successfully convince France on the recent security situation.

The Ministry of Tourism, SriLankn Air Lines and Travel agents and other stake holders have all cooperated with the Government in this effort.

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As a last minute travel option, you should try booking at a travel lodge instead of your usual hotels. If you have managed to get your hand at cheap flights , it is even better. You don’t have to bother about rental cars though.

Minister of Tourism, Milinda Moragoda on his recent visit to France met with Monsieur Luc Chaphel, the Minister (Secretaire de l’etat) of Tourism and Consumer Affairs in France and discussed several areas for corporation.

A framework for a MOU to be signed at a future date was also discussed in detail. Mr. Chaphel pledged his support in the areas of hotel classification, training of staff in hotel management and destination marketing. Mr. Chaphel further requested information on projects undertaken to combat global warming.

Minister Moragoda was accompanied by the Sri Lankan Ambassador in France Ms. Chitrangani Wagiswera, Chairman Sri Lanka Tourist Board Mr. Renton de Alwis and Additional Director General Sri Lanka Tourist Board Mr.Dileep Mudadeniya.
France has recorded an average 35,000 tourists along with 300,000 roaming in 2004 and 2005. Subsequent to the travel advisory in October 2006 arrivals dropped sharply. Sri Lanka Tourism is optimistic that the change of the advisory and the recent visit to France by the Hon. Minister, will provide a kick start for winter arrivals 2007/2008. Arrivals from France mainly patronize hotels and attractions in the Cultural Triangle.

The Sri Lanka Tourist Board recently conducted an independent securing audit which resulted in the French tourism operation resuming the selling of Sri Lanka as a holiday destination. The results of the audit was presented on the 11th September at UNESCO and followed by several of promotional activities.

A separate event was organized to launch the World Tourism Day celebration by inviting leading women to the travel and tourism industry in France. 10 French students studying tourism were invited to submit the projects they have worked on the degree programmes and same was presented to the panel consist of key women professionals. This session was conducted by a welknown TV personality Alexandra Debanne.

A separate cultural show was also organized at UNESCO with more than 1000 spectators that comprised of mainly travel agents and tour operators while Sri Lanka also launched a special promotional campaign titled “Half a price for better half” to increase the numbers immediately.

French tourists, hopefully in droves, are poised to return to Sri Lanka after the country was cleared for travel as a tourism destination.

A Sri Lanka Day organized by its Tourist Board office in Paris was held last week with Minister of Tourism Milinda Moragoda, Chairman of the Tourist Board Renton de Alwis and the Additional Director-General Dileep Mudadeniya attending in order to introduce new products and the measures taken to re-launch the destination and renew its identity.

The Tourist Board said in a statement that the Sri Lanka Day provided an opportunity for the Board to reveal vital information for the French market.

It said fully aware of its negative image in the French market , Sri Lanka Tourism opted for transparency and requested an independent private French security firm to conduct a security audit related to tourism activities. The evaluation, conducted over a period of 12 days by Sécurité Sans Frontières (SSF), covered various tourism sites, hotel infrastructures, airport and other forms of transport as well as general conditions of security (political, social, health and weather-related issues). The findings and methodology and the fact that it was performed independently (no complicity) of the audit were revealed to the public on September 11 at UNESCO. According to Frédéric Bauer, Président of SSF, “the in-depth study of the security conditions has permitted us to make specific and detailed technical recommendations. The terrorist risk is not that greater in Sri Lanka than other countries visited by the French …. In conclusion, the security situation for us is acceptable for tourism visits to Sri Lanka and I take responsibility for recommending the destination for French Tourists.”

The Board said this positive conclusion is a welcome change to the position adopted by the travel advisory of the French Foreign Ministry which contributed to a great extent the increasing negative perception of the destination due to the security problems related to the North and East of the country.

The active re-launch of the destination will be put in place through various activities with the tourism professionals. They included a “Half Price for your Better Half” from October to December 2007 and January 2008 package; Incentive for Travel Agents; Mega fam trips; Joint Promotions by the Sri Lanka Tourist Board and Tour Operators willing to participate on an equal basis in the costs; a Treasure Hunt that will take place from October 5-12 in Sri Lanka to discover exceptional tourist sites for travel agents.