Israel mulls direct air links with Colombo

Sri Lanka and Israel are looking at establishing direct air links between the two countries and firstly exploring the possibility of arranging charter operations commencing next summer.

This is subsequent to a discussion Tourism Development Minister John Amaratunga and Sri Lankan Embassy officials had with leading tour operators in Tel Aviv, while attending the 23rd annual International Mediterranean Tourism Market (IMTM 2017) at the Tel Aviv Convention Centre.

Representatives of 40 countries and regions are participating at the exhibition this year with an anticipated attendance of over 20,000 visitors. Following the positive outcome of the meeting it was decided to follow up with operational level meetings in the near future.

Renewed efforts are being made to position Sri Lanka as an attractive destination for the outbound Middle East tourism market. The star performer for Sri Lanka in the Middle East market last year was Israel which grew by an impressive 33.4% year on year in a scenario where overall growth from the region was 6.5%.“In order to achieve our targets we need to aggressively market Sri Lanka at the appropriate fora so as to secure our share of the international tourism pie. The Middle East is a lucrative market that needs to be carefully nurtured. With the travel issues in Europe and US this is our opportunity to woo the Middle East,” Minister Amaratunga said.

In order to consolidate this growth trend Sri Lanka Tourism is paying special attention to the Israeli outbound market which is estimated at 16 million travellers, double the country’s population, which denotes the fact that its citizens undertake multiple foreign trips during the course of a year.