The Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Guangzhou and the Hilton Tianhe Hotel organized the first ever Sri Lanka Food and Dance Festival held in South China from 13 to 21 June 2012, showcasing some of the best of Sri Lanka’s vibrant culture. The promotion was timed to create excitement about Sri Lanka as a tourism destination just prior to the July-August travel peak.
The people of Guangzhou enjoyed good food and drink and the tantalizing flavours of Sri Lankan food prepared by Master Chefs Raja and Chandika, from the Hilton Hotel, Colombo were appreciated by the gourmets of Guangzhou. Besides, the city has a rich food culture, Cantonese Cuisine being one of the top 4 Chinese cuisines. Guangzhou also has a centuries old tea culture and the festival featured a tea promotion by the world renowned Sri Lankan brand, Dilmah tea.
Visitors to Sri Lanka festival were enchanted by Sri Lankan dance and music performed by the National Youth Council of Sri Lanka Dance Troupe, that has performed to audiences worldwide. The Troop specializes in preserving traditional Sri Lankan dance forms and the performance covered all three traditional dance styles of Sri Lanka: Low Country dance, Kandyan dance and Sabaragamuwa dance.
The event was made possible with sponsorship by the National Youth Council of Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan Airlines and two top Chinese travel industry leaders: Panda CITS and CGZL. The flight time direct from Guangzhou to Sri Lanka is only 6 hours. It is the right time to make Sri Lanka the next big travel destination for visitors from South China.
China is expected to be the world’s largest source of outbound tourists by 2020-accounting for about 100 million trips a year. The number of Chinese traveling outside the country rose to 54% from 2005 to 2009 (to 47.7 million) and the outbound market annual growth averages 10% a year. Guangdong Province, with the largest GDP of all China’s Provinces accounted for 11.4 percent of China’s GDP in 2010. Guangzhou, the capital of the Guangdong Province was Forbes Best Commercial City of Mainland China in 2010 and 2011.
The people of Guangzhou have high disposable incomes, which are rising by approximately 10% a year. Guangzhou ranked the top on the list of cities of source of outbound tourists in China and over 1.2 million Guangzhou citizens have traveled abroad.
The Consulate General of Sri Lanka
Guangzhou
26 June 2012
