Rs. 1.5 billion investment to put tourism industry back on track

INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) is aggressively working to promote Sri Lanka by investing Rs
1.5 billion
To this end it has identified five clusters which generate highest number of arrivals including the countries such as USA, UK, France,
Germany, Italy and Belgium with concentrating more on European market
&The aim of focusing attention on the European market is because they are regarded as high spending tourists
With the introduction of a visa-fee free scheme we saw a growth in Indian tourists while a decrease was recorded in Chinese tourist
arrivals,& Chairman SLTPB, Kishu Gomes said.A decision has been taken to launch an incentive scheme for tour operators to encourage them to
generate more business for the country,& he said.&Though the promotional campaign is on hold, we are working on an attractive marketing ad
campaign aligned with a PR strategy to promote the country in an aggressive manner as never before,& he said.However, the industry
stakeholders say that there is a lot more to do to put the tourism industry on track.