Sri Lanka among top five emerging destinations

Colombo, Nov 12 (IANS) Sri Lanka has been listed among the five new emerging travel destinations by the World Travel Market’s industry report.

Other countries are Mexico, Malaysia, Indonesia and Argentina, according to a statement issued by Sri Lanka’s Tourism Development Authority Monday.

Three key factors that favoured Sri Lanka are the re-emergence of the country after the civil war, infrastructure investments and beautiful locations.

The report, launched in London last week, highlights travel trends, and is referred to by many professionals in the industry in making their strategic plans.

Sri Lanka’s tourism sector has been booming since the end of a three-decade war with the Tamil Tigers in 2009.

The government has targeted one million tourist arrivals for 2012 and revenue of $1 billion from foreign direct investment.

By 2016, it hopes to reach 2.5 million arrivals despite industry experts warning of massive infrastructure upgrades to meet this target.

The World Travel Market (WTM) is a British event aimed at the global travel industry. Thousands of travel industry professionals, government ministers and representatives of the international media, converge on ExCeL London each year in November to attend WTM.

IANS 2012-11-12 13:44:07