Aitken Spence Travels welcomes 200,000th visitor within a year
View(s):Aitken Spence Travels, the largest inbound tour operator in Sri Lanka, welcomed its 200,000th ‘happy visitor’ last week for the FY 2018/19. The company has recorded a growth of tourist arrivals, essentially building on its past performance of 178,000 visitors during its previous FY of 17/18.
“Aitken Spence Travels generated more than 400,000 room nights to the local hotels during the FY 18/19, making it the single largest contributor to Sri Lanka’s hotel industry. The company has trained and provided many direct and indirect employment opportunities to Sri Lankans in the tourism industry,” the company said in a media release.
Aitken Spence Travels top performing markets are in line with the country arrivals. Of these markets the company saw a significant increase in visitor arrivals from Australia due to the national carrier operating direct flights from this source market.
The other segments such as cruise, special interest groups, sports tours, nature and luxury tours have contributed to the positive visitor numbers handled by the company, it said.
As the largest inbound tour operator in Sri Lanka Aitken Spence Travels allocates a high marketing budget to promote destination Sri Lanka, without being dependent on destination promotions.
The company is a joint venture between Aitken Spence PLC, a leading blue-chip conglomerate and TUI, the largest integrated tourism company in the world, flourishing on the best practices of these two reputed and strong shareholders.
“Over the years Aitken Spence Travels has established strong partnerships with many leading tour operator partners. The trust they have placed in the Aitken Spence brand coupled with our ability to cater to the many diverse demands and needs of the discerning traveller has given us an edge over competition. It is a great achievement for us to continue to keep raising the bar year after year and we will continue to cater to the different segments with innovative solutions,” noted Nalin Jayasundera, Managing Director of Aitken Spence Travels.
“In addition to handling 200,000 passengers we are also the only Destination Management Company to record a Rs. 1 billion profit in
Sri Lanka,” he added.