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Saturday, Sep 12, 2009
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Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Saturday, Sep 12, 2009 ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version | Audio | Blogs |
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Industry & Economy
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Tourism States - Gujarat Post-LTTE, Sri Lanka gives more thrust to promoting tourism
The island-nation is offering the Ramayana Trail to the Hindus who can visit as many as 52 sites that can be traced back to the Epic. Our Bureau Ahmedabad, Sept. 11 With the threat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) over and the northern and eastern areas regaining peace, Sri Lanka is reopening this region for tourism promotion after more than two decades and plans to start a low-cost Kochi-to-Colombo sea route ferry for tourists and others before end-2009. With plans to make tourism the third largest source of foreign exchange — after garment exports and remittances received from Sri Lankans working abroad — the island-nation’s Government is launching a campaign to increase the number of tourists visiting Sri Lanka by five times to 25 lakh by 2016, Mr S. Kailaiselvam, Director-General of Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, said after a road-show here today. That tourists flow to Sri Lanka is increasing in the post-LTTE phase is proved by the fact that their number increased by 8 per cent in June and by 28 per cent in August, he said. The Sri Lankan President, Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa, has declared the year 2011 as a “Visit Sri Lanka” year, in view of his nation “regaining peace”. A number of packages are being worked out and a series of activities and events are being planned for 2011 to lure in more tourists. In particular, the island-nation, which has seven world heritage sites, is offering the Ramayana Trail to the Hindus who can visit as many as 52 sites that can be traced back to the Epic. Besides, in Trincomalee, a famous Shiva Temple has been reopened for pilgrims. Last year, nearly five lakh tourists from across the world, including 85,000 from India, visited Sri Lanka. The campaign is now to increase the number of Indian tourists to 20 per cent of all tourists, he said. To woo the Indian tourists, Sri Lankan officials are organising road-shows in three major cities to generate interest. Road-shows in citiesBesides, they would be interacting with nearly 150 travel agents in each important city, promoting various properties and new travel opportunities, launching various promotional activities and giving visa-on-arrival facility as well. Sri Lanka plans to target three main categories of tourists from India. The youth and the young families, up-market travellers and those seeking spiritual upliftment. It also plans to offer a host of heritage properties, many of them 150-year-old. More Stories on : Tourism | Terrorism | Gujarat
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