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Saturday, 17 July 2010
Bahrain tourism to Sri Lanka surges 142pc
Tourism from Bahrain to Sri Lanka boomed in the first half of this year with the number of people from the kingdom visiting the republic surging by 142 per cent, according to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority.
The total number of travellers from the Middle East region reflected a similar upsurge with arrivals increasing by 102 per cent over the same period.
"Regardless of apprehensions of an unsteady global economy, Middle East travellers are spending time and money on travel and Sri Lanka has been one of the preferred destinations with a meteoric rise in tourists during the first half of the year," said Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau's Middle East director Heba Al Mansoori.
"While 2009 was when the recovery process started, with the end of three decades of war, the rebound has been robust and rapid and the recovery is being driven and led by the Middle East with strong growth from key markets including the UAE which was up by 209 per cent, Saudi Arabia up by 96 per cent, Qatar by 252 per cent and Kuwait up by 95 per cent.”"Sri Lanka's tourism industry is resilient and the government is sparing no efforts to revitalise the industry as they recognise that tourism has a key role to play in the country's economic recovery and stability,” she added.
"Our outlook remains positive for the rest of the year as we have successfully built a relationship of trust with both regional consumers and the travel trade and will continue to reap benefits with the gradually improving economic situation," Al Mansoori said.
"In the Middle East in particular, travelling closer and for shorter periods of time and demanding value for money, seem to have been accentuated during the post-crisis period.
"The regional outbound market is evolving and inescapably requires changes as we need to know and understand consumers better to be able to market to them,” she concluded.
TradeArabia News Service
