Lively Sri Lankan music and pungent Sri Lankan curry warmed a chilly winter’s night in Sydney earlier this week as members and guests of the Travel Industry Curry Club of Australia (TICCA) gathered at the Blue Elephant Restaurant in Crows Nest for the organisation’s mid year themed industry promotion and dinner.
[Pictured: Gothami Indikadahena aims to raise the awareness of Sri Lanka’s MICE facilities to the Australian market.]
Gothami Indikadahena, Consul General, Consulate General of the Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, provided the assembled travel industry personnel and media members with extensive background details on Sri Lanka and a thorough briefing about the country’s tourism resources which include seven World Heritage sites.
Among these is the centuries old fortified city of Galle which preserves architectural treasures of three major colonial powers: Portuguese, Dutch and British.
As well, there is the lesser known Sinharaja Forest Reserve, the only surviving area of relatively undisturbed rainforest in Sri Lanka.
Nearly 70 per cent of the flora found in this expanse of rolling hills is endemic to the area.
Sri Lanka has embarked on a major drive to attract high-yield business travellers, she said.
[Pictured: Golf tourism is a growing niche market for Sri Lanka with historic courses like the veteran layout at Nuwara Eliya popular among Australian players.]
We are in the process of contacting business companies throughout Australia with the purpose of highlighting our MICE facilities, she added.
The main convention centres are in Colombo and Kandy. Incentives are being offered to organise events in Sri Lanka. Our missions in Australia can be contacted for further details, she said.
In addition to the boosting its share of business travel, Sri Lanka tourism officials have identified five segments of the leisure market for promotion: honeymoons, medical tourism especially Ayurveda, eco-tourism, spiritual and meditation tourism and golf tourism.
More than 20,000 Australians visited Sri Lanka in calendar year 2007, she said.
TICCA’s Sri Lanka themed promotion and dinner – events are organised on a quarterly basis in leading curry-friendly venues in Sydney – was supported by SriLankan Airlines which provided a number of door prizes.
TICCA membership is open to members of the travel industry and media who enjoy networking and curry.
Additional details are available from TICCA Chairperson, Michael Osborne, e-mail [email protected] . The organisation’s website is www.lovecurry.org
Exclusive Report by Thomas E. King, TravelMole’s Travel & Lifestyle Editor
