Tag Archives: Consulate General

Showcasing Sri Lanka as a ‘must-visit’ tourist destination, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau successfully concluded its three city roadshow held in Pune, Rajkot and Surat. Over 100 trade partners attended the event and interacted with close to 24+ Sri Lankan delegates comprising hotels, airlines, integrated resorts, attractions and DMCs. Sri Lanka has seen a substantial growth in tourist arrivals from India in the year 2017 with over 384,000 Indian travellers. The destination has already recorded a growth of 15.3 per cent during the first half of 2018 compared with the same period last year. Chamari Rodrigo, Consulate General, Sri Lanka High Commission in Mumbai said, “India topped the number of tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka at 206,337 followed by Chinese tourists at 136,294. We strongly believe that there is a huge potential in this market and we aim to go all out to reach out to the audience across India. The seven city roadshow is one of the major activities Sri Lanka tourism conducted to ensure that key Indian travel and trade personnel  maintain a close relationship with Sri Lanka’s tourism industry partners.” Viranga Bandara, Assistant Director – Marketing, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau said, “Our primariy objective for the year is to reach out to the potential travellers and showcase various attractions the destination offers. Its important as a tourism board to ensure our trade partners are well updated with the latest developments, be it visa processing, special packages, new hotel launches, etc.”  

The Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia in Mumbai organised a two-day expo in the city that brought a huge delegation of Indonesian sellers from various industries together under one roof.  ‘Expo Indonesia 2016’ saw 35 companies participate from industries like travel and tourism, furniture, handicrafts and food. Also participating in the expo was Garuda Indonesia which has announced a direct flight between Mumbai and Indonesia sometime in December 2016, making it the first direct flight to Indonesia. It is considering Bali and Jakarta for this connection. The airline is still working on the schedule and will be loaded in the GDS for sale soon. The Consul General added that they are pushing for more cities between the two countries: Bali – Mumbai, Jakarta – New Delhi  and Chennai – Medan.  On the sidelines of the expo was a seminar dedicated to tourism. Saut Siringoringo, Consul General, Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia, said, “We want to do everything to push relations between the two countries. Indonesia has huge potential in the India market. The achievement of 16 billion USD in trade value between India and Indonesia is no small achievement. We can see this growth even in tourist arrivals from India which grew 68 per cent last year with 2,70,000 Indian tourists visiting Indonesia. This year we expect 3,50,000 – 4,00,000 Indian arrivals into Indonesia.”