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Wednesday, 19 December 2012 01:28 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Cheranka Mendis
Sri Lanka yesterday welcomed Polish couple – Agata Dziekan and Krzysztof Kujawa – as the record-breaking 950,000th and 950,001th tourist to arrive in the country.
With the Five-Year Strategic Plan for Sri Lanka targeting 950,000 arrivals for the year, the record-breaking incident was celebrated at the 
Bandaranaike International Airport Katunayake with the couple being greeted by Sri Lanka Promotions Bureau Managing Director Rumy Jauffer, Colombo City Hotels President M. Shanthikumar and Sri Lankan Ambassador to Russia Udayanga Weeratunga.
Arriving after a 10- hour flight in Poland Enter Airlines 1293/4 charter flight, the couple expressed their surprise at the rare honour and noted that this was their first-ever visit to the country.
“I initially learnt about Sri Lanka online and was captivated by the beauty of the country and the host of activities it seemed to offer. I have dreamt about coming here for some time and with the winter season coming in and the holidays, we decided to make the much-looked-forward-to trip,” Dziekan said.
A Graphic Designer by profession, Dziekan, and her partner Kujawa, who is an Engineer, will be staying in Sri Lanka for two weeks and will enjoy many trips to some of the country’s most historical locations. They will be visiting Sigiriya, Anuradhapura, Dambulla, Polonnaruwa, Pinnawela, Kandy, down south, and various hotspots in Colombo during their stay.
“I will ask all my friends to come to Sri Lanka. There are surprises from the very first few minutes in the island,” she commented. “We were very surprised. We arrived after a 10 hour flight and we were sleeping most of the way and then within the first 10 minutes here we were picked and it has been incredible.”
The couple was presented with a memento and a four day-three night stay in any hotel of their choice during their next trip to Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka Promotions Bureau Managing Director Rumy Jauffer speaking to Daily FT stated that the industry is happy about its achievement of surpassing the target for the year. He noted that arrivals in the month of November crossed the 100,000 mark for the first time in recorded history, an achievement which pushed forward positive sentiments in the industry.
“By end last month, the total number of arrivals was recorded at 109,202, the highest number of tourists for a month in history.”
Last year, November tourism recorded 90,889 arrivals. The growth this November compared to the previous year is 20%.
“We expect the December arrivals to go along the same line and pass the 100,000 mark again,” Jauffer said. “Given the sentiments we are confident that we will achieve the milestone one million mark by end this year.”
Colombo City Hotels Chairman M. Shanthikumar also speaking to the Daily FT noted that the country could possibly aim for one million by the end of next year rather than this year, given that consumer promotion is brought back in to the equation of industry promotion. For the past 18 months there have been no consumer promotions, Shanthikumar said. The reason was mentioned as the lack of funds.
“Taking part in trade and travel shows alone will not help. We need more consumer promotion to build up awareness about Sri Lanka,” Shanthikumar expressed. He noted that Sri Lanka Tourism together with the industry and SriLankan Airlines will launch a consumer promotion program next year to bring in more tourists to reach the one million mark. The promotions will target the feeder markets (Germany, France, London, Italy, and Scandinavian countries) and the emerging markets (India, China, Malaysia, Thailand, etc.). The quantum of money to be put aside for the particular project is currently under discussion.
With sentiments upbeat for this year and the next, the country is likely to see three major events happening in Sri Lanka in the coming year. Jauffer acknowledged that a world-renowned celebrity artiste is likely to come to Sri Lanka in 2013, for which negotiations are currently being conducted.
An authentic Sri Lankan food festival and the annual World Spice Food Festival are also in the pipeline for the upcoming year along with a “beach party like no other”. He reiterated that none of the projects have been confirmed so far, but are definite plans for next year, for which negotiations and discussions are being held.
The country will also take part in more trade fairs in the coming year, among which are two key trade fairs in India and Kazakhstan. In 2012, Sri Lanka has taken part in a total of 22 travel fairs, he said.
