SL Tourism aims to drive more business from cruise tourism
View(s):Sri Lanka Tourism (SLT) in partnership with travel industry associations has prepared a new marketing plan to capture a new market segment – cruise tourism. SLT, in a media release, said the country’s main tourism promotion agency will be present at the top B2B cruise fair Sea trade Cruise Asia hosted by Busan Port Authority, Busan Metropolitan City, Korea Tourism Organisation and Korea Marine Leisure Network on June 11-13. The event will feature a showcase exhibition, conference and travel agent training. The conference will focus on the growing momentum for cruise tourism in Asia as well as cruise shipbuilding today and in the future, SLT said.
Sri Lanka’s delegation will include industry veteran Bernie Dole and 10 leading operators in Sri Lanka for the top cruise liners of Celebrity, Royal Caribbean and MSC which constitute over 50 per cent of the cruise liner market globally.
“We will sponsor one of the segments at the conference where top speakers like Alan B. BUCKELEW Chief Operations Officer, Carnival Corporation & Plc, Michael HACKMAN EVP, Marine Operations and New Ship Building, Genting Hong Kong Limited, Anthony H. KAUFMAN SVP, Asia Operations, Princess Cruises, Ki-tack LIM President, Busan Port Authority, Zinan LIU Vice President China and North Asia, RCCL, and Chairman, CLIA North Asia and Oliviero MORELLI President, Japan, MSC Cruises will be make presentations,” said SLT Promotion Bureau Chairman Rohantha Athukorala .
In Sri Lanka, 14 cruise liners called in 2012/13 registering visitor arrivals of 19,615 cruise travelers whilst in 2013/2014 Sri Lanka attracted 22 cruise liners with visitor numbers going up to 27,317 while this year the numbers are expected to rise to 50,000 plus.