China Road Shows of SLTPB 2023 kick off

Palitha Kohona, Sri Lanka's Ambassador to China, delivers a speech at a seminal tourism promotion event sponsored by Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) in Beijing, capital of China, April 17, 2023. (Photo provided to Guangming Online)

BEIJING, April 18 (Guangming Online)-- "We are particularly grateful to the Chinese government for having included Sri Lanka in the pilot group of twenty countries identified for group travel. We are gushing with enthusiasm to welcome our Chinese friends, " said Sri Lanka's Ambassador to China Palitha Kohona on Monday at a seminal tourism promotion event sponsored by Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB).

SLTPB, the statutory body responsible for the promotion and marketing of Sri Lanka tourism in the global context, announced that three road shows will be launched in Beijing, Guangzhou, and Changsha one after another.

Photo taken on April 17, 2023 show the scene of a seminal tourism promotion event sponsored by Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) in Beijing, capital of China. (Photo provided to Guangming Online)

The road shows is the largest national promotion event held by SLTPB this year since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. As China has lifted restrictions related to international leisure travels imposed during the pandemic period and announced authorized countries including Sri Lanka for Chinese to visit, it is important to commence and instigate destination promotions in China with a full-fledged market specific promotional campaigns to recapture the market. With the listing Sri Lanka as an authorized destination by Chinese authorities, there is a great potential to secure a sizable market from China’s outbound market.

Sri Lankan performers dance at a seminal tourism promotion event sponsored by Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) in Beijing, capital of China, April 17, 2023. (Photo provided to Guangming Online)

Together with 30 destination management companies, hotel groups and local travel agencies of Sri Lanka, SLTPB will present totally the image and quality of Sri Lanka as a high quality tourist destination for the Chinese tourism industry.

According to SLTPB, China is one of the key source markets for Sri Lanka, as China is marked as a nation which brings a large number of tourists to Sri Lanka annually. During 2018, China was the highest tourist generating market providing 265,965 tourist arrivals from China up to December in the same year. Therefore, by renewing connections with its Chinese counterparts, Sri Lanka hopes to re-establish China one of the major East Asian destinations which will generate a similar number throughout 2023.

Sri Lanka, a charming island paradise, is known as “the Pearl of the Indian Ocean” and has many wonderful tourist products and experiences. We can sum up and interpret the uniqueness of Sri Lanka by means of "three characteristics and eight experiences". Three characteristics means authenticity, compactness and diversity; eight experiences means pristine, scenic, heritage, wildlife, essence, thrills, bliss and festive. With many sites and scenes bottled up in to a small island due to the rich natural conditions, a traveler could be riding the waves in the dawn and admiring the green carpeted mountains by dusk. The interweaving of different cultures makes Sri Lankan people become hospitable, pluralistic, creative and full of energetic, and the smiles and hospitality of Sri Lanka become its id in the world.