The State Ministry of Tourism and Taufeeq Travels Qatar signed a memoriam of understanding to woo one million arrivals from Qatar to Sri Lanka for 2023 at Cinnamon Grand.
“We will launch special charter flights targeting this promotion and these charters will land in Colombo and Mattala airports,” said CEO of Taufeeq Travels Qatar, Rehan Ali Syed.
He said that their average stay would be around five days and he expected a large number of expats residing in Qatar to be roped in for this special promotion. Ali Syed said that they have also contracted with Cinnamon Hotels, Araliya, and Regent Hotels who all have diversified properties all over Sri Lanka for this promotion.
State Minister for Tourism, Diana Gamage said that no mega tourism promotions were done targeting the Gulf market and she hopes to launch this similar promotion in UAE with the assistance of Taufeeq Travels. She also disclosed that Qatar is looking at investing in the island’s leisure sector with around USD million dollars.
“We have lost over USD 30 billion dollars due to the war and my goal is to bring that lost foreign currency back to the country through tourism and projects of this nature would help towards this endeavor.” (SS)