Sri Lanka’s Promotion Tourism Office has lately initiated a significant charm offensive in China to attract Chinese visitors to several of the city’s most famous travel agencies and tourists. Tourism Minister John Amaratunga even pointed to the option of raising the visa fee for visitors from China because the nation is prepared to welcome Chinese tourists once more. Chinese tourist visitors are welcome to visit.
Sri Lanka Tourism also hosted a unique press briefing at China World Hotel in Beijing on 17 June for Chinese and international media outlets. Over 60 media outlets and 40 representatives from airlines and travel agencies participated in the event, which included China’s CCTV, People’s Daily, Global Times, China Radio as well as Air China, China Eastern Airlines, Sri Lankan Airlines, and China Southern Airlines.
Sri Lanka tourism participated in the Beijing International Tourism Expo (BITE) 2019 which is recognized as one of the most influential and famous international expositions sponsored by the Beijing Culture & Tourism Administration, organized by Beijing Relation Conference and Exhibition.
BITE, the largest international travel exhibition in China, is an important exchange and trade platform for promoting the global tourism resources and products and stimulating tourism consumption. China is Sri Lanka’s second largest source market which drew 265,965 tourists last year. China has over 150 million outbound tourists, increasing 14% year-on-year.
At the presser, questions were posed by attendees on the current situation in the country. Minister John Amaratunga, Ambassador to Sri Lanka in China and Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Kishu Gomes updated the media on the current situation in Sri Lanka and that the country was safe to travel to.
In parallel with the participation at the fair and presser, Minister John Amaratunga and his delegation also undertook a special visit to the Yunnan College of Tourism in Kunming, China and also visited the Yunnan College of Tourism in Kunming, China on 17th June 2019 during their visit to China.
As a result of this visit, the Yunnan College of Tourism also gave the opportunity for Chinese speaking Tour guides from Sri Lanka to participate in their Chinese Speaking Elite Tour Guides Training Programme, titled as ‘’ Sino – ASEAN Tourism Personnel Education & Training Base ‘’ which will be conducted from October. 13 to November 2. Furthermore, Sri Lanka Tourism was also fortunate enough to receive the award for the “Best Organization” at the Beijing International Tourism Expo (BITE) 2019.
