Sri Lanka Tourism unveils tourist guide book in English

The English tourist guide book on Sri Lanka, funded by the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) and compiled by the Sri Lankan Embassy in Moscow, was launched yesterday at the Taj Samudra Hotel, Colombo.

The Guide Book includes the country profile, places to visit, hotel and other accommodation facilities and also details about leisure activities and emergency numbers and instructions for tourists.

Rumy Jauffer, the Managing Director of SLTPB said the book would be distributed worldwide, to attract more tourists to Sri Lanka.

“We have already delivered the book to countries like New Zealand and Singapore. We will also translate the Guide Book in to Chinese language in future,” he said.

The Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, Bashwara Gunarathna explaining commenting on promotional projects said, it would launch a mega project this year to lure tourists from foreign countries. “We will specially focus on European countries,” he stressed.

Udayanga Weeratunga , Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Russia and also the one who compiled the Guide Book had earlier published a tourist guide book in Russian in 2012.

The Mission in Russia translated the guide book into English to be distributed among Sri Lanka’s tourism stakeholders including other Sri Lankan Missions overseas.

The Ambassador said that the Mission in Russia had frequently carried out campaigns and programmes to promote Sri Lankan tourism in Russia.

“The Mission carried out several projects like Road shows, Sri Lankan Nights, Mega Tourism Caravan not only in Russia but also in Ukraine and Belarus to promote Sri Lankan tourism, culture and also Ceylon tea. We recently introduced direct flights from Sri Lanka to Russia to make travelling more comprehensive,” Weeratunga said. Last year, tourist arrival to Sri Lanka from Russia, Ukraine and other CIS countries (Commonwealth of Independent States) increased by 45.7 percent compared to 2012. It was said to be the highest percentage increase reported last year. The percentage of Indian, United Kingdom and German tourist arrivals had increased by 9.1, 9.7 and 20.2 respectively. Ambassador Weeratunga said they would renew the Guide Book annually with latest tourism related details pertaining to Sri Lanka. The publication was presented to the Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa yesterday.