Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Turkiye, Hasanthi Urugodawatte Dissanayake visited the Antalya Province recently to renew friendship and collaborations with the Province, together with the Hony. Consul of Sri Lanka in Antalya Ali Kamburoğlu recently.
The Governor of Antalya Ersin Yazıcı, Mayor of Antalya Metropolitan Municipality Muhittin Böcek, President of Antalya Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ali Bahar and team as well as the Chairman of the Antalya Association of Journalists Idris Tas attended the meetings.
Antalya with a 2.6 million population is the 5th largest city in Turkiye and is famous for agriculture and tourism. It is known as “The city where you can go swimming and skiing in the mountains in the same day”. The Province offers many archaeological heritages and natural landscapes. In 2022, Antalya had 13.5 million tourists only by air and accounts for about one third of Türkiye's tourism revenues. In the agricultural sector, approximately 68 percent of the vegetables, fruits and flowers are grown in green houses.
With over 600,000 bed capacity and the booming tourism industry, the hotels are attracting foreign employees which includes Sri Lankans. One of the key exports items form Sri Lanka to Antalya is coco peat.
During the meeting the Antalya Chamber of Commerce was keen to arrange a trade delegation to Sri Lanka for collaborations in tourism and agricultural sectors preceded by an interactive session with potential delegates in Antalya within the next two months. Interests were also expressed in establishing a partnership with a Sri Lankan counterpart Chamber as well.
The Ambassador highlighted human resource training in the hospitality sector in Sri Lanka with which there are opportunities for collaboration for mutual benefit with avenues that are complementarity rather than competitive. Chairman of the Antalya Association of Journalists Idris Tas, indicated interest in signing an MoU with a counterpart organization in Sri Lanka and working to promote Sri Lanka as a destination for tourists from Turkiye. In the past, some of the promotional activities organized by the Embassy of Sri Lanka has received much publicity in Antalya and in Turkiye with the support of the Antalya Association of Journalists.
Ambassador also had meetings with several business personalities and visited the office of the Hony. Consul. The Mayor invited Sri Lanka to participate in international gastronomy, music, film, dancing and tourism events to introduce Sri Lanka to people of Antalya and assured support. Accordingly, the Embassy envisages to organize an introductory seminar on Si Lanka’s tourism, trade and investment potential in early June in Antalya and to organize a promotional event including food festival in September to coincide with the Gastronomy Festival in Antalya.
Embassy of Sri Lanka
Ankara
20 April 2023
