Holiday Ceylon Tours

Marking a remarkable historical moment, Sri Lanka Tourism celebrated the targeted 600,000 tourist arrivals today.

Tourism officials headed by Sri Lanka Tourism Chairman Dr. Nalaka Godahewa welcomed the guest at the Bandaranaike International Airport today when he touched down at 3.40pm.

Commenting on his arrival, Dr. Godahewa said “This marks a significant moment in the history of tourism. Sri Lanka is now on the world map as a unique safe destination. With this, we hope to achieve the 700,000 target set for Visit Sri Lanka 2011 “

The lucky guest was presented with a 6 night 7 day package which includes hotel accommodation, ground transport and entrance tickets to historical tourist sites in the island.

Since the end of the conflict in 2009, Sri Lanka has seen an increase in tourism figures. November 2010 saw 72,251 tourists arriving in the country, a   marked a 63.1% jump as compared to last year and the highest figure attained in a month since 1966. The last highest figure was seen in 2004 recording 66,159 tourists.

Sri Lanka Tourism launched Refreshingly Sri Lanka Visit Sri Lanka 2011 with 12 events spread across the year.

Refreshingly Sri Lanka Visit 2011 will have twelve different theme events happening throughout the year, in keeping with the 12 letters that has been used for the tagline “Wonder of Asia”.

Next year Sri Lanka Tourism will be offering similar complimentary packages to the 250,000^th, 500,000^th, 600,000^th and 700,000^th tourist that arrives in the island to mark Refreshingly Sri Lanka Visit 2011.

All promotional activities and events will be planned in the next couple of years with the expectation of achieving the target of 2.5 million tourists set by the HE

The Nilaveli Beach Hotel sits on 15 acres of landscaped gardens with magnificent views across white sandy beaches to Pigeon Island. The fishing village of Nilaveli is situated about 16kms north of Trincomalee.

The glorious beaches here are particularly good for swimming and snorkelling from March to October which makes it a valuable addition to a tour of the Cultural Triangle.

Trincomalee can be accessed on the A6 route from Habarana in the Cultural Triangle and takes about 2.5 hours. The journey from Colombo will take approximately 6.5 hours via Habarana.