Israeli charter flight heads to Colombo

More Israeli travellers are scheduled to visit Sri Lanka during the winter season when a special charter operation will get underway.

Arkia Israeli Airlines, an Israeli airline, will be carrying out charter services to Colombo operating two flights a week from Tel Aviv from October 31 to April 2024.

The airline is expected to bring in about 400 passengers a week on its aircraft Airbus A321. This will be the airline's first time calling at Colombo.

Leisure travellers from this new market in Israel have seen increased traffic with about 3396 arriving just last month as well. Israel travellers were among the top primary markets to Sri Lanka.

So far upto August this year there have been 14,287 arrivals from Israel, which is a 140 per cent increase over the previous year that saw 5,938 visitors from this market.

The Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau is expected to carry out a promotions campaign in Israel in November. Andrews Travels is the agent for the charter airline.

Expectations are high that with the increased traffic from this new market, there will be more visitors for the summer as well.

Sri Lanka is expecting a surge in tourist traffic this winter with tour operators already booking ahead of the season. The country is witnessing an increase in tourist arrivals and expecting a significant boost this year post pandemic and ever since the country's economic crisis last year.

There has been a significant increase in numbers in the first eight months of this year. So far 904,318 visitors have been holidaying in Colombo compared to 496,430 during the same period in 2022. July saw the highest number of tourists visiting the country with the figure reaching 143,039 that was a 202 per cent increase for the same month in 2022.