TBM Staff - Mumbai The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) is set to position the country as a wedding destination, reports Economy Next. “We have already made a name as a wedding destination in many markets such as European, Asian and even the Middle East,” Kimarli Fernando, Chairperson of Sri Lanka Tourism Development told reporters.
“We as an industry need to work to together to build relationships with our peers perhaps in India, Nepal, Maldives and Pakistan and promote weddings.”
Before the Coronavirus crisis Sri Lanka’s hotels had seen modest weddings by young Western couples and large parties thrown by parents of Indian couples where entire floors of hotels were hired for days at a time.
Fernando says Sri Lanka has a lot of potential in wedding segment and a variety of places where weddings can take place – near Singharaja forest, cultural triangle, on beaches and in Yachts.
Therefore, the authority is gearing to open a separate wedding portal for this purpose that would include all the necessary businesses to host a wedding in the country.
“Sri Lanka Tourism will open a separate wedding tourism portal to promote weddings for everybody,” Fernando said.
“We will provide the event management companies, wedding planners, photographers and, so that anybody could look at it and reach out to the relevant businesses.
“Sri Lanka is everything that Asia has to offer.”
SLTDA in partnership, with Brides of Sri Lanka, a bridal magazine, Galle Face Hotels and SriLankan Airlines is hosting a two-day wedding exhibition on February 19 and 20 to promote the idea.
‘Wedding Week 2022; will be a free of charge exhibition that will have Indian and Maldivian fashion designers presenting along with local designers as well as support services.
Sri Lanka is targeting 1.1 million tourist this year. Fernando said they are getting the month and daily numbers to achieve the targets.
Last month, on average per day Sri Lanka has received 3,500 tourists. She said in 2018 they received about 6,000 arrivals per day and their target is to get 50 per cent of that.
“There is a worry about the infections, but we are confident on Sri Lanka’s vaccination drive with the on-going booster,” Fernando added.
“More importantly Wedding tourism and MICE are two areas we are focusing on.” (Source: Economy Next)
