Sri Lanka targetting 6.5 lakh visitors in 2010

Sri Lanka is targetting about 6.5 lakh tourist arrivals this year from around the world, a top official of the country's national airline said today.

The island nation registered a total of five lakh tourist arrivals from various countries last year, of which one lakh were from India, Chinthaka Weerasinghe, area manager Kerala of Sri Lankan Airlines told reporters.

"India and Western Europe are the main contributors in the emerging leisure traffic to Sri lanka, which is becoming a very popular destination," he said.

The airlines is participating in the ongoing Kerala Travel Mart and is wooing Indian tourists with various packages. 

Weerasinghe said the airline had recently launched a special air fare for all young Indians to visit and discover Sri Lanka from now to June 30, 2011, he said, adding those aged between 16-27 would be given discounted packages.

The special 'youth fares' are currently operative from each of the six cities-- Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram and Tiruchirapalli.

The airlines also plans to re-start its operations from Kochi. 'There are plans to re-start service from Kochi, but no date has been fixed', he said.

Weerasinghe said the airline also proposed to start service to China and western Europe from January next year.

'We are also looking at consolidating our services at existing destinations in India and increase frequencies', he said.