Malaysia enticing Sri Lankans to visit F1 Grand Prix
Tourism Malaysia has seen a drop in arrivals from Sri Lanka last year compared to 2015 and authorities are luring Sri Lankans to reserve tickets for the upcoming Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix.
Sri Lankans have been continuing to drop travel to Malaysia since 2015 with 51, 337 compared to 61, 670 in 2014. This drop has been attributed to the strong currency and insufficient connectivity between the two countries.
In this respect, Malaysia has increased its flights to Colombo by 20 per cent to attract increased traffic to the destination.
The 2017 grand prix will be the penultimate edition in Sepang before Malaysia takes a break from hosting after 2018. The 19th edition will be held from September 29 to October 1 soon after the Singapore Grand Priz happening two weeks prior. The Shell Malaysia Motorcycle Grand Prix 2017 returns on October 27-29 again as the penultimate race in the MotoGP calendar, four weeks after the Malaysia F1 Grand Prix.
In this regard, Sepang International Circuit (SIC) and Malaysia Airlines will have special travel packages for the race season in collaboration with selected agents at Bengaluru and Sri Lanka with the support of the travel agents associations.
Free seating would be made available on a first come first service basis at the Main Grandstand, F Grandstand and K1 Grandstand areas.
The track in Sepang has 15 turns and eight straights that is said to have challenged many of the world’s best F1 drivers.
The grand prix attract 63 million viewers worldwide, organisers of the event said on Tuesday at an event held to launch the package travels to view the racing event in Malaysia. Currently, Indonesia is one of the top countries that travel to Malaysia to watch the grand prix.
Malaysia’s other key markets for tourist arrivals from Asia are Singapore, Thailand, Philippines and India with UK and Australia as one of the top western markets.