SriLankan Airlines rolls out initiative to increase tourist traffic from United Kingdom

In a bid to increase tourist traffic from the United Kingdom, national carrier SriLankan Airlines together with the Sri Lankan High Commission joined forces with travel and tour operators in that country to increase tourist arrivals.

SriLankan Airlines and the Sri Lankan High Commission in the UK hosted 30 of the country’s premier tour operators to discuss positive developments in the island nation.

In addition to sharing the current situation in the country, the discussion also explored the possible avenues to promote the destination to UK travellers given the ground situation is seen to be improving, SriLankan Airlines said in a statement yesterday.

Travellers from the UK have long preferred Sri Lanka as a holiday destination, especially during winter, and tourist arrivals are expected to improve from that source market as the UK government relaxed the travel advisory against visiting Sri Lanka that was issued a few months ago. The UK travel and tourism stakeholders received firsthand insights on the promotional plans conceptualized by the national carrier for the UK market for the coming months.

The UK was among the top five tourist source markets in Sri Lanka prior to the pandemic. After Sri Lanka opened its borders for tourism following Covid-19 outbreak, the UK is the second largest source market for the local tourism sector.

The airline shared it has further planned several promotions for the UK travel trade leading up to winter, including educational tours for employees of travel agencies and sub-agencies and familiarization trips to Sri Lanka for British travel influencers. SriLankan will also work with trade partners to promote the island for special interest travel.

“Moving from COVID-19, outbound tourism from the UK has been resilient and shown signs of rapid recovery with the resumption of commercial air travel in late 2021. Since then, large numbers of British travellers have embarked on foreign travel, including to Sri Lanka and the UK outbound market is slated to surpass pre-pandemic levels by 2024,” SriLankan Airlines said in its statement.     

  
The carrier said it remains the first choice of travel for many flying between London and Colombo as it is the only airline to offer convenient, nonstop services between the two cities with easy connections to the Maldives. The airline carries over 60 per cent of the tourists flying from the UK to Sri Lanka, annually. 

SriLankan currently operates daily, nonstop flights from London to Colombo. Additionally, passengers flying onward to the Maldives can expect to enjoy immediate connections. Furthermore, SriLankan is a gateway to a multitude of international cities in the region including in India, the Far East and Australia. The airline will also launch two additional weekend flights this winter, in anticipation of resurgence in demand for travel from the UK to Sri Lanka for leisure.