Sri Lanka impresses its Australian counterparts through vibrant cultural aspects and picturesque locations

Showcasing it’s potential to promote Sri Lanka as a top tourism destination, Sri Lanka Tourism hosted a successful Familiarization Tour for ten leading Travel Agents all across Australia, including Melbourne, Sydney, and the Gold Coast.  These agents completed a 10-day Tour around Sri Lanka, experiencing the country’s diverse tourism offerings. Being the first time visitors to Sri Lanka, these agents were showed a strong interest in promoting Sri Lanka as a destination. During the tour , they visited Wilpattu and Yala National parks , Sacred city of  Anuradhapura ,  Dambulla cave temple, the temple of the Tooth Relic , including other areas such as  Ella , Tangalle and Colombo city where they visited  the Lotus Tower and the Port City. They were given accommodation at star class hotels at each area, where they were able to enjoy the breathtaking surroundings during their stay.

Aitken Spence Travels fully hosted their transport and lodgings at five star hotels throughout the tour. The Australian visitors were thoroughly impressed with the local cuisine, hospitality and the warm welcome of the Sri Lankans wherever they went. They were very much keen to mix with the local inhabitants and exchange friendship and solidarity.  They also got involved in Tea plucking during their visit to Nuwaraeliya.   The other locations also included Galle, a UNESCO world Heritage and one of the most beautiful tourist attractions in the country. All these locations provided the Australian travel agents the perfect opportunity to gain enough information and cherish able memories to relate to their fellow citizens, enabling them to visit Sri Lanka at least once in their lifetime.

At the end of the Tour, a successful B2B session was also held at Cinnamon Life Hotel, allowing the Australian agents to meet their local counterparts of around 50 travel trade partners enabling to develop new business opportunities

Australia is a crucial tourism market for Sri Lanka as it has the potential to bring down many tourists to Sri Lanka, with their keen holiday making and the interest in exploring new destinations and locations. Australians are known to be keen travelers and holiday makers;therefore, this FAM would be extremely important to boost more Australian tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka. With more Australian tourist arrivals coming up it will also add to the increasing number of tourist arrivals to the destination.  Up to 18^th June 2025 , tourist arrivals from Australia has  been recorded as 47,603, out of the total number of tourist arrivals so far to the destination which is recorded as 1, 104 373.