The Hindu : Business : SriLankan Airlines into destination marketing

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Friday, Sep 29, 2006
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SriLankan Airlines into destination marketing

Special Correspondent

Brings 100 buyers to Kerala Travel Mart

KOCHI: SriLankan Airlines has brought 100 buyers, including media personnel, to the ongoing Kerala Travel Mart. Among them is a team of five tour operators from China.

The airline is promoting destination marketing in this country.

Manoj Gunawardena, head of worldwide passenger sales of the airline, told presspersons that the largest group brought for the travel mart was from Japan. Representatives from Canada, Ireland, China and other countries were also there to promote the State as a big leisure destination.

The airline not only transported the tour operators but also did follow-up so that tourists were treated well and there was no hitch in their sojourn here. Senaka Fernando, regional manager of Indian subcontinent and the Maldives, said the airline was operating 32 flights weekly from Kerala — 12 from Thiruvananthapuram, 11 from Kochi and nine from Kozhikode.

Efforts were on to promote north Kerala as a major destination of tourism, said Asha Subramanian, sales manager of the airline based in Thiruvananthapuram. Goa would become the 50th destination of the airline in October.

The airline officials said they were working in close liaison with the Tourism Department officials. Medical tourism was another emerging sector, where the advantages of cost, quality of service and the infrastructure available here were proving to be a big draw for Sri Lankan tourists. A number of medical students were also going to countries such as China, of late.

Answering a question, he said the airline is thinking of operating wide-bodied aircraft from Kozhikode so that there would be an additional 450 seats available weekly from the State. The flights from Thiruvananthapuram to West Asia were carrying a lot of perishables and 15 per cent of the revenue was accounted for by cargo alone.

A.B. Ranjit De Silva, manager, marketing services of the airline, said it had achieved a strong financial performance in last two years.

Shyana Wijayratne, sales and marketing manager (in-bound) of SriLankan Holidays, said SriLankan Air Taxi services recently launched had proved to be popular. The airline was in partnership with select tour operators in many countries to provide tailor-made holiday packages for tourists. The island nation was a popular destination for business events in the South Asian region. The airline had a separate department for meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions (MICE) tourism.

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