Kochi, May 06: Sri Lankan airlines has plans to expand its services in Asia during this summer by increasing frequencies to Dubai, Kuwait, Bangalore, New Delhi, Kochi, Male, Daya Pelpola, chairman, Sri Lankan airlines, said today. Pelpola told reporters here that India was an important country for Sri Lankan airlines as it was the fastest growing market with over 100 per cent growth in traffic last year. Sri Lankans were also increasingly travelling to India and constituted the third largest group of arrivals into India during last year, he said. He said the airlines operated its services to 31 destinations in 20 countries across Europe, Middle East, far east, Indian sub-continent and the Maldives, he said.
P Ramanujam, secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Sri Lanka, said Sri Lanka was the safest destination in the world as the peace process had been set in motion and there was no major incident. To promote regional tourism, Sri Lanka and Kerala government would soon sign a memorandum of understanding. About six states from India would take part in the 'travel mart' to be held in Sri Lanka on May 17.
Pointing out that SARS had not affected Sri Lanka, he said there had been slight reduction of tourists from the east, but that had been compensated by the increase in tourists from the west.There was also slight reduction with regard to expected tourists from China to Sri Lanka, he added. Bureau report