Addressing the 50th Anniversary celebrations of Sri Lanka Tourism at the BMICH on last Friday (May 27) the Tourism Minister said Sri Lanka's MICE tourism too is growing along with the leisure tourism. "We see huge growth potential for this segment especially from India and China," the Minister said.

The Minister noted that in a very encouraging development the leading French travel association, the National Union of Travel Agents in France (SNAV) that represents about 1,300 travel related entrepreneurs of France has decided to hold its 2016 annual congress in Colombo with the objective of promoting Sri Lanka as a venue for holding MICE.

"This is a huge morale booster for the industry and one that will translate into considerable growth in the French market over the next few years. This year will further highlight the growth of the MICE segment."

He said the UN World Trade Organization (UNWTO) also for the first time will host the WTO global conference in Pasikudah in July.

The conference on "Tourism: A Catalyst for Development Peace and Reconciliation" will be held at Pasikudah in Batticaloa from 11th to 14th July 2016 with the technical assistance of the UN World Trade Organization (UNWTO).

According to Minister Amaratunga, over 200 delegates from all over the world will attend this conference and the international media exposure for the event would provide much needed publicity to the region opening up Pasikudah to the world.

The Minister however pointed out that connectivity is one problem in developing MICE tourism. He said the problem is being solved by increasing the frequencies of the airlines serving Colombo and also by the entry of new airlines to Colombo.

"We are very encouraged by the re-entry of KLM and our intention is to increase the number of daily flights which currently stands at around 75 to 100 in the near future," he said.

The Minister added that in this Golden Jubilee year Sri Lanka Tourism hopes to achieve revenue of US$ 3.5 billion by welcoming 2.5 million visitors.