Due to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine it is important to expand the promotional activities in other potential CIS countries in the region. Therefore, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau has made arrangements to organise a series of trade familiarisation tours ( FAM tour) from the CIS region in collaboration with Nawaloka Aviation, GSA for Air Arabia.
The first such familiarisation tour was organised for 16 travel agents, from Azerbaijan, considered as an emerging market, from November 8-14, considering the importance of attracting more tourists to Sri Lanka by creating great awareness on the destination.
The main purpose of this FAM tour was to convey the messages to travellers that Sri Lanka is a safe and an attractive destination for tourism, filled with a myriad of holiday opportunities to choose from and to spread a positive atmosphere about the situation in the country to emphasise that Sri Lanka is ready to welcome the travellers.
With the first initiative taken by the Sri Lanka Tourism in organising a meeting with representatives of all the Airlines in Sri Lanka, Air Arabia has offered its assistance to Sri Lanka Tourism for the promotional activities in CIS region. Another significant opportunity is that Air Arabia currently flies to 170 destination including many of the countries in CIS region such as Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Georgia which has a great potential in attracting tourist to the country. Air Arabia collaborated by choosing the key travel agents in Azerbaijan and provided return air tickets for all 16 travel agents.
During their stay in Sri Lanka the agents visited some of the main attractions in Sri Lanka including Kandy, Sigiriya, Eco Park Safari and Southern beaches.
B2B meetings were also conducted for local travel trade and hoteliers at the Taj Samudra.
