World Tourism Day winners announced

World Tourism Day 2010 concluded successfully last month with much grandeur in Kirala Kelle in Matara.

Amaya Resorts Director Marketing and Sales Dinesha de Silva points to a picture on display to Deputy Minister of Economic Development Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena whilst Actg. Managing Director Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Malraj B. Kiriella is also present.

Leading up to the celebrations, among other competitions, the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau launched two competitions for the domestic market; the Photographic Competition and the SMS Campaign.

The aim of the competitions was to achieve the long term objectives of ascertaining the preferences of the domestic market which would not have been hitherto marketed to the international tourist.

The winners of the competitions were announced at a press conference held at the Sri Lanka Tourism office and the prizes were handed over to the lucky winners by Deputy Minister of Economic Development Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena.

The SMS campaign had the involvement of all four local mobile service providers and recorded a large number of SMSes for this competition.

From the six categories given, Sigiriya received the highest votes in the Heritage category, Nilaveli received the highest in the Beach category, Sinhala and Tamil New Year received the highest in the Festival category, Dunhinda in the Water Fall category, Yala in the Wild Life category and White Water Rafting received the highest number of votes in the Adventure Sport category.

The six lucky winners who were picked from a draw received a voucher for two for in a luxury hotel in the area of their winning attraction.

Deputy Minister of Economic Development Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena handing over a prize to one of the winners. Chairman Sri Lanka Tourism Dr. Nalaka Godahewa and Actg. Managing Director Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Malraj B. Kiriella are also present

The photography competition encompassed a plethora of themes which included Heritage, Beach, Nature, Sports, Festivals, Animals and Birds, Smiling People, Gem and Jewelry Art and Culture, Religious Sites and Rituals, Agriculture and Flashing.

Almost 250 entries were received in all categories.  The winning entry was a beautiful fishing image and the winner received a cash prize of Rs. 30,000 rupees along with a day’s stay for five persons at the Nuwara Eliya National Resort.

The second prize went to a bird’s image with the winner receiving a cash prize of Rs. 20,000 while the third prize went to a Dambulla image with the winner receiving Rs. 15,000 while consolation prizes of Rs. 5,000 were given within the 10 categories.

Meanwhile, the exhibition of the winners’ photographs was also ceremonially inaugurated by Yapa Abeywardhana on 20 October and was open to the public on 20 and 21 October.

Actg. Managing Director of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Malraj B. Kiriella said: “We are very happy with the response to the competitions as the whole objective of the campaign was to get the domestic market involved in tourism. It is stated that domestic tourism is the basis for international tourism for any country.”

“We are overwhelmed with the number of SMS as well as the talent shown by the local photographers. We will take the responses of the SMS competition into serious consideration when planning our future activities to the international tourist while we also hope to retain a number of photographs in our database and be used for our promotional material to take Sri Lanka to the world.”

This year celebrated the 30th year of UNTWO World Tourism Day and this year’s theme was declared as ‘Tourism & Biodiversity’. 

Sri Lanka Tourism to welcome tourists at airport

THE Sri Lanka Tourist Board will launch a programme to take Sri Lanka’s splendour to the world.

Deputy Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena pointed out that their target in the future was to give wide publicity to the tourism industry.

Noting that his Ministry was planning the necessary programmes in this respect, the Deputy Minister said that two new counters would be set up at the airport for the tourists arriving in the island.

“The tourism industry and the ordinary masses cannot be separated. Our aim is to take the tourism industry inland. I am optimistic that this goal can be reached if everyone unites and joins hands,” he said.

The Minister was speaking at a function in Colombo organised to award prizes to winners of a photographic and SMS competition organised in parallel to World Tourism Day. Chairman of the Tourist Board Nalaka Godahewa was among those present.