RIYADH, 20 May 2006 — A tourist brochure on Sri Lanka was launched here Thursday to promote the island as a family destination for Saudis and expatriates in the Kingdom.
The brochure, displaying the details of the tourist facilities and attractive tailormade packages for Saudi customers, was sponsored by Unique Choice, the leading wholesale tour operator in the Kingdom. The maiden copy of the brochure was presented to Sri Lankan Ambassador A.M.J. Sadiq by Zawfir Ziard, general manager of Unique Choice, at the function co-sponsored by Sri Lankan Airlines and Unique Choice.
“Despite problems created by the LTTE in the North, Sri Lanka is still a safer place for a family holiday,” Sadiq told reporters and travel agents during the launching ceremony at the Riyadh Palace Hotel.
So far, no tourist had been targeted by the rebels, he noted, adding that Saudi families who had visited Sri Lanka had always opted to repeat the visit because of the island’s natural scenic beauty and the hospitality of its people.
“Muslim visitors will feel at home in the city of Colombo since they could see mosques in the vicinity of every shopping center,” he said. In fact, he said, women in abayas are a common sight in the city.
The relatively peaceful environment and the progress in tsunami reconstruction caused an increase in tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka, according to the Sri Lanka Tourist Board (SLTB).
Tourist arrivals in the first quarter of 2006 numbered 159,664, an increase of 27.5 percent from 125,250 during the same period last year. Tourist arrivals in the first three months of 2005 had been affected by the deadly tsunami, which struck coastal areas of the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26, 2004.
During the month of March 2006 alone there were 54,746 tourist arrivals, which is an increase of 8.6% over the same month last year. The Tourist Board expects 600,000 tourist arrivals this year.
Saudis constitute a very small portion of Sri Lanka’s visitors, with only about 2,000 tourists every year, but Ambassador Sadiq is hopeful that the number would keep increasing. He noted that visitors are given entry visas for one month on arrival at the Colombo International Airport.
To make travel more convenient to visitors, Sri Lankan Airlines has introduced air taxis for its passengers to reduce the travel time on the island’s roads.
Fawzan Fareed, Sri Lankan Airlines manager for the central region of Saudi Arabia, said this is in addition to the “excellent onboard service” the airline offers its passengers.
“A trip which would take four hours on the road, could be covered in 30 minutes by air taxis,” Fareed said, adding that the airline’s passengers are charged a modest fare to move within the island.
The island has some 11,000 quality rooms and it is studded with quality hotels such as Grand Cinnamon, Taj Exotica, Light House, and Kandalama for the comfort of luxury tourists.
