Sri Lanka Tourism in desperate push at FIFA
Sri Lanka is desperate to get travellers back on the island and in this respect visitors to the FIFA World Cup next month in Qatar are the next bet but a hurried digital marketing campaign needs to be carried out, industry officials say.
The industry believes that though this is a last minute plan it could work if they do carry out some campaign in the countries in which travellers originate from. Sri Lankan tourism authorities are trying to woo fans visiting the World Cup to take a detour to Sri Lanka in between matches as hotel costs are high in Qatar and there is sometimes a 3-4 day break between matches.
The event held in Qatar this year which has a capacity for only about 40,000 rooms is right now fetching high rates and neighbouring countries like Dubai are likely to cash in on the opportunity to grab some of the spectators to this event arriving from far and wide.
However, the concern among the industry is that flying into Sri Lanka might be more expensive but the only way to reduce this cost would be to provide some concessions for flights from Qatar, it is believed.
Moreover, there is a need to increase flight frequencies between the two destinations as well and in this respect; they need to work with all other airlines.
Sources also point out that with the drop in European traffic to the country Sri Lanka needs to ensure that flight frequencies are increased in a bid to attract more visitors.
European markets are still slow and travellers are mainly arriving from countries like India and Russia, it was noted.
With the tourism industry moratoriums still hanging in the balance as the banks are handling it on a case by case basis, the SME sector is likely to find it more difficult this winter.
Industry sources explained that even this winter the flights have not come back yet and since frequencies have not been restored it is hard to sell the destination.
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