Sri Lanka tourism targets Hungary as a source market

he Eastern European region saw a growth in tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka during 2017 and the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) selected Hungary as a country to offer special programs to Hungarian tourists in 2018. Officials from LTPB announced these programs at the Sri Lankan – Hungarian Tour Business Forum – Road Show on 17th of May 2018 at the Araz Continental Hotel Budapest.

From 14th to 17th of May this year, in Warsaw, Cracow and Budapest took place meetings of the local representatives of the tourist industry with Sri Lankan tour operators, as a part of Sri Lanka Road Shows 2018. The event was initiated by the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) and aimed at strengthening the existing cooperation in the field of tourist activities and establishing new business contacts between countries.

Sri Lanka Business Forum – Road Show 2018, is part of the East European action organized by SLTPB. The first gatherings took place on May 17 in Budapest, bringing together representatives of Hungarian travel agencies who had the opportunity to talk with a large representation of the Sri Lankan tourist industry during B2B sessions.

“Sri Lanka is a place where everyone will find something for themselves – from high mountains, through tea plantations, to palm jungles and beautiful beaches. Lovers of wild nature will see here a huge variety of species of fauna and flora, and the fascinates of history and monuments at every step will discover traces of our more than 2,550-year-old cultural heritage” – said Madubhani Perera.

However, that’s not all. Sri Lanka is also a perfect place for people who value active leisure. We have excellent conditions for trekking, rafting, surfing, paragliding, balloon flights, riding in the mountains on bicycles and playing golf. All these elements make us very much interested in building the image of Sri Lanka as a destination and the Central European market is very important to us in this respect – said Madubhani Perera, director of marketing from the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, discussing the island’s major attractions thereby highlighting the great diversity of its tourist offer.

Hungary has seen a rapid growth in tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka and has strong flight connectivity from Budapest.

The number of tourists from Hungary in 2017 was 4951, and 2512 Hungarian travellers had already visited Sri Lanka this year by April 2018. Currently, over 2 million tourists arrived in the country from all over the world.