Sri Lankan Night at the “Third Rome”
The two week long “Mega Tourism Caravan” commenced its first phase this month in Moscow, Russia and would also be conducted in Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Ufa and Yekaterinburg covering a distance of almost 4000 km on wheels.
This would be the follow up of the “Mega Tourism Road Show” held in March – April 2013, in the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. These promotions were conducted with the participation of Sri Lankan Ambassador to Russia Udayanga Weeratunga and the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, a media release issued by the bureau stated.
The campaign commenced with a cultural show, namely the “Sri Lanka Night” at the Hotel Lotte Plaza, Moscow by the dance maestro Chandana Wickramasinghe. The event was attended by the diplomatic corps, leading travel and tour operators in Moscow, leading businessmen in both tourism and tea industries, leading media persons and the Sri Lankan Diaspora.
Ambassador Weeratunga stressed upon the need to promote Sri Lanka tourism in Russia and CIS countries since the fifth largest tourist arrivals are from the said countries. He also spoke about the diplomatic and cultural relations between the two nations, traditional dancing of Sri Lanka and infrastructure development, the release stated.
A photo exhibition of 120 photos covered the visits of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. It also covered the major tourist destinations namely; Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Dambulla, Kandy, Sigiriya, Pinnawela and Nuwara Eliya along with scenic and pristine beaches along both Western and Eastern coasts, Sri Lankan cuisine, traditional dancing and wild life.
The bureau notes that The Lotte is an Asian export in the heart of the Russian capital’s shopping and financial districts, close to the Kremlin and new business district. The “Three Michelin” star chef, Pierre Gagnaire, along with a team trained exclusively in Paris, presided over the reception which followed the cultural show.
On July 5 the major events of the promotional campaign were the two workshops conducted in the morning and afternoon respectively at the Chaykovsky hall of the Hotel “Radisson Slavyanskaya”.
Two workshops were conducted with the collaboration of reputed Tour Operators Paks and Russian Express and the tour operators’ Spectrum, Maldiviana and Connaissance, which was attended by approximately 250 Russian tourism industry representatives, the release noted.