Sri Lanka Tourism received a tremendous response from travel agencies and travel media from Shenzhen and Guangzhou at Sri Lanka Tourism promotional activities. The promotional events were organized by the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau together with the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Beijing on the sidelines of the Guangzhou International Travel Fair (GITF 2014), held from 27 February to 01 March 2014 in Guangzhou.
128 Chinese Travel Agencies based in Shenzhen and Guangzhou participated in the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Road Shows held on 24th and 26th February in the two Southern cities in China, respectively and interacted with 25 counterpart travel agencies and hoteliers from Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan Airlines.
The Sri Lanka Tourism stall adorned with attractive Sri Lankan décor at the GITF 2014 was recognized as the most visited and most popular stall at the GITF 2014 Exhibition.
The Ambassador of Sri Lanka to China, Ranjith Uyangoda, gave exclusive interviews to media institutions who were present at the Road Shows including Shenzhen Television, Southern Economic Daily, China Radio and a number of online media. The interviews covered all aspects of Sri Lanka tourism and the new travel products introduced to meet the requirements of Chinese tourists visiting Sri Lanka.
Senior officials of the Shenzhen and Guangzhou Tourism Administrations who participated in the Road Shows as special guests appreciated the efforts made by Sri Lanka to raise awareness on Sri Lanka tourism in the Chinese tourism market. They also assured their utmost co-operation to Sri Lanka tourism promotional efforts in their cities. Ambassador Uyangoda also spoke at the Road Shows.
Senior officials of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, Embassy of Sri Lanka in Beijing and Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Guangzhou were associated with the promotional activities.
In 2013, arrival of Chinese tourists in Sri Lanka increased to 54,288 recording an annual increase of 96.3%. In January 2014, a total of 10,778 Chinese tourists visited Sri Lanka elevating China as the top most source of tourist arrivals in the same period.
