Sri Lanka the Great Destination of the World: Sigiri girls first to wear see-through blouses

As Sri Lanka places high priority on tourism, it received considerable mileage during a presentation at the Broadmoor Hotel in San Francisco last week where Sri Lanka was the first to be chosen to launch an exciting new series titled “The Great Destinations of the World”.

Global tourism expert, author and journalist, Lakshman Ratnapala, a former Director of the Sri Lanka Tourist Office in New York, made the keynote presentation, categorising Sri Lanka's attractions into eight segments, all of which, he said were 'authentic".

He invited the audience to take a closer look at the Sigiriya maidens who he claimed were not bare breasted but wearing gosammer blouses proving that it was Sri Lanka which had introduced the see-through fashion to the world. He added that the grafitti on the mirror wall proved that Sri Lanka had a flourishing domestic tourism industry as far back as 1,500 years ago.

Answering questions from the audience on the foreign policy differences between the West and Sri Lanka, Mr. Ratnapala claimed that the We s t ' s Victorian era foreign policies based on Lord Palmerston's theory that they had no permanent friends nor enemies, only permanent interests were selfish, dishonest and hypocritical while in the East, most countries like Sri Lanka practised friendship with all nations, through fair or foul weather.

A video of Sri Lankan drummers heralded the presentation followed by a Lonely Planet video on the Number 1 destination of the World. Radio B r o a d c a s t e r, Au t h o r - Photographer and Film maker Russ Johnson and Print Designer- Artist- Photographer Pat Meier Johnson, both of whom had visited Sri Lanka, showcased a video produced by them to illustrate an introduction to the island.