More tourists from Israel

Tuesday, 7 June 2011 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Shezna Shums

More Israel tourists are tipped to visit post-war Sri Lanka to enjoy the country’s beauty and splendor, the outgoing envoy Ambassador Mark Sofer said last week.

Now thousands of Israeli tourists — mainly families — are visiting the island, and according to officials families tend to spend more and stay longer when they are on holiday. Previously a few hundred Israeli tourists used to visit Sri Lanka.

Earlier Israeli tourists were mainly surfers or single persons; however now more and more families are coming.

Sri Lanka is something new and it is not too far from Israel for people to come here on holiday.

Tourists travel to Jordon from where they are able to travel to Sri Lanka, which is around a five hour journey.

For Israeli tourists they look to go on holiday throughout the year however the main holiday periods are August to September and June to July when the climate is hotter.

Recently the Sri Lankan embassy had a road show promoting Sri Lanka as a tourist destination and this too has raised a lot of interest.

In Israel there are about seven million people and out of this about 2 ½ go oversees on holiday.

“There is no industry better equipped than the tourism industry to bring people and societies together,” noted Ambassador Sofer.

According to the Ambassador just last week Sri Lanka was voted the number one place to travel to by the tourists.