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UK top tour operators cold-shouldered
The Tourist Board has downgraded an annual awards ceremony to honour leading UK travel operators who have sent over 90,000 British tourists to Sri Lanka last year and decided to have a food festival in its place at the famous World Travel Market (WTM) that opens in London tomorrow.

Tourist Board Director General S. Kalaiselvam told The Sunday Times yesterday " instead of giving awards to individual companies, we thought of promoting the country through a food festival ". He said the Tourist Board felt a food festival will attract more tourists than an awards ceremony, but angry UK tour operators told The Sunday Times that the Tourist Board in Colombo is " comparing apples and oranges ". Many tour operators expressed a feeling of being 'let-down' by the Tourist Board at the downgrading of the awards ceremony which was aimed at saying 'thank you' to the many companies in the UK which have now made Britain the no. 1 tourist generating country to Sri Lanka.

Tourist Board London Director Ms. Charmarie Maelge told The Sunday Times 93,278 British tourists arrived in Sri Lanka in 2003. The numbers are expected to rise by as much as 20 per cent for the coming year, expected to be a record year for tourist arrivals thanks mainly to the Ceasefire with the LTTE and efficient promotion by UK-based operators.

Ms. Maelge was however non-committal about the downgrading of the awards ceremony. She referred queries from The Sunday Times to the head office in Colombo. The Tourist Board does not spend for the awards ceremony - the several UK travel agents and their ground-handlers as well as the hoteliers self-finance the event by purchasing high-priced dinner tickets. The event had been the high point of the Tourist Board calendar when the sudden decision came from Colombo to downgrade the gala show.

Several leading UK tour operators like Hayes and Jarvis, Saga, First Choice, Airtours, My Travel etc., who send thousands of British tourists to Sri Lanka will not be rewarded this year with any awards. Director Marketing of the Tourist Board M. Kiriella told the The Sunday Times that Tourism Deputy Minister Arjuna Ranatunga will attend the food festival at the WTM. He said Tourism Minister Anura Bandaranaike will not attend. However a reservation has been made for Minister Anura Bandaranaike at Grange Hotel in Holborn, London where the food festival is being held.

Wrong choices, say travel men
UK tour operators who sell Sri Lanka as a holiday destination, already angered that the Sri Lanka Tourist Board has devalued their annual awards ceremony, have now accused the Board of giving the only three awards on offer to the wrong people.

Usually 20 awards are given at the ceremony held at the Churchill Inter-Continental Hotel in London. London Director of the Tourist Board, Charmarie Maelge refused to confirm or deny that the three award recipients are Kouni Travel, Travelpack and Thomas Cooks. She referred the question to Colombo, where Director General S. Kalaiselvan said he cannot comment.

Asked what the criteria was for selecting these companies, he said it would be on the basis of the number of packages each company has handled. He could not say whether that information had been obtained or not.

Director/General Manager (Travels) of Aitken Spence, Ravi Subramaniam told The Sunday Times that this year no information was obtained by the Tourist Board about packages being handled. Aitken Spence is one of Sri Lanka's largest ground operators who work for several of the UK tour operators.

A spokesman for SriLankan Airlines in London also said they had not been contacted for the figures. The Sunday Times learns that one of the three award winners has sent less than 1,000 passengers to Sri Lanka.

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