To draw Indian tourists, Sri Lanka banks on wedding, wellness & gaming

Tuesday, March 1, 2022

In the coming days, Sri Lanka is going to take concrete steps to re-build the infrastructure of tourism to draw more Indian tourists. In the world, the Indian outbound tourist market represents one of the largest growing markets and accounts for the largest amount of tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka. The Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Sri Lanka Tourism and the Sri Lankan Association of Inbound Tour Operators, as part of this strategy. It would help to promote growth. In 2022’s TAAI annual conference is to be hosted in Colombo from the 19-21 of April, as an initial measure.

As part of the broader Colombo tourism strategy approval has been given for special facilities at the Bandaranaike International Airport regarding special handling of high spending gaming travellers from the airport whose main target audience would be from India.

To the conference, TAAI plans to bring investors to establish partnerships with local firms. This would initiate expansion of gaming and other enterprises which remain majorly unexplored. On 24 February, the plans were made public at the Ramada Hotel at a joint press conference from TAAI and Sri Lanka Tourism.

Prasanna Ranatunga, the Tourism Minister of Sri Lanka, called the planning part of the ‘turning point’ strategy of Sri Lankan tourism. Ranatunga also said that for international travellers, Sri Lanka should become a hub. The TAAI conference is expected to bring in 500 delegates with over 50 delegates from reputable media institutions.

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