Sri Lanka Tourism at the World Travel Market - London 2014

World Travel Market (WTM), the leading global event of Travel and Tourism Trade, took place from 03rd - 06th November 2014 at the Excel Exhibition Hall, London, UK, to promote international travel throughout the world. Having foreseen the unique opportunity to promote Sri Lanka as a renowned destination in world travel, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) took steps to participate in the event, along with 58 partners of the industry. These industry partners along with Sri Lanka Tourism participated at WTM highlighting many unique travel and hospitality products in an area of 250 sq meters.

Sri Lanka Tourism has been participating at this event for many years with the local travel industry. The main objective of this year's representation was to provide the Sri Lanka travel industry with an opportunity to meet, interact and network with Travel and Tourism industry partners from the UK and around the world to gain an immediate competitive advantage for the Sri Lanka travel industry and to stay abreast with the latest developments in the travel industry. The travel fair provided the small and medium hotels and travel agents (SME sector) with a valuable opportunity to participate at WTM at a concessionary rate this year as well.

The delegation which comprised of industry partners and officials representing the government of Sri Lanka was lead by, Mr Rumy Jauffer, Managing Director of Sri Lanka Tourism, and Mr Chameera Peiris, Assistant Director of Marketing of Sri Lanka Tourism.

The opening ceremony of the Sri Lanka stand took place on Monday 3rd November 2014 with the lighting of the traditional oil lamp amongst the beats of the magul bera and the sound of the conch shell. The traditional oil lamp was lit by Mrs Chamari Rodrigo, Acting Sri Lankan High Commissioner to the UK, Mr Nishantha Wickramasinghe, Chairman of Sri Lankan Airlines, Mr Rumy Jauffer, Managing Director of Sri Lanka Tourism, Mrs Sonali Wijeratne, Minister (Commercial) of Sri Lanka High Commission as well as a few other industry leaders.

This year the Sri Lanka Tourism stand featured a wildlife theme with local elephant family replicas at the entrance which was a unique Sri Lankan wildlife attraction. A boulevard banner depicting Srilankan elephants and whales was also a key attraction at the entrance to the Asia Hall.

During the period of the event, Sri Lanka Tourism arranged to give away precious blue sapphire gems at the media briefing at the Sri Lanka stall. A number of exclusive media interviews took place with the view of promoting Sri Lanka under the main theme of 'Wonder of Asia', and as an ideal destination for visitors around the world during the press conference.

The Sri Lanka stall showcased traditional Sri Lankan dancing enriched with customs, which provided a very good opportunity for the visitors to get a glimpse into the culturally rich traditions of Sri Lanka. In addition to this, a programme to promote Ceylon Tea was held at the time of the exhibition, providing a rare chance to the visitors to enjoy a cup of pure Ceylon Tea.

Coinciding WTM, a special advertising campaign launched on London underground in 25 stations for two weeks on 16 sheet panels. Thereafter this will be extended to a 48 sheet panel campaign in 15 prominent London underground stations for 10 weeks. Sri Lanka's most attractive images on elephants, leopards, whales, dolphins will be depicted in this campaign.

Under the guidance of the Ministry of Economic Development, the industry of Tourism has witnessed a rapid growth in recent history. Sri Lanka has already become one of the most sought after travel destinations among the UK tourists within the past few years. The arrival figures up to October 2014 from the UK stood at 117,442 tourists while compared to the annual total of last year which was 137,416. With this achievement in hand, SLTPB is looking forward to achieve the expected target by the end of the year 2016 and WTM was indeed a milestone in this journey.