The Hindu Business Line : Sri Lanka may hold cricket match for tsunami relief

Officials of Sri Lanka Tourism told Business Line that the Sri Lankan Deputy Minister for Tourism, Industry and Investment promotion and former cricket captain, Mr Arjuna Ranatunga, was keen to hold a charity benefit cricket match for tsunami victims.

"We have plans for some charity cricket matches in Sri Lanka and India. No dates have been fixed as yet, but the matches could be sometime after March. We would need to get clearance from the cricket boards," a senior Sri Lankan Tourism official said.

Despite the tsunami disaster , Sri Lanka continues to be a favourite destination among Indian tourists with arrivals during the calendar year 2004 crossing the 100,000-mark. "The latest figures show that 100,550 Indian tourists visited Sri Lanka during January-December last year, up from just about 86,000 Indian tourist arrivals during the same period in the previous year," the Assistant Director, Marketing, Sri Lanka Tourism, Ms Madubhani Perera, said.

Echoing similar sentiments, the Director, Walkers Tours, Mr Amith Sumanapala, said that Sri Lanka was still receiving fresh bookings from India. "We receive both new bookings as well as many fresh inquiries from India, which is very encouraging. There are fresh inquiries for travel dates as early as February," Mr Sumanapala said.

Walkers Tours is the largest in-bound tour operator in Sri Lanka, handling over 20 per cent of the organised tourist arrivals to the island. It is a member of the John Keells Group, which is Sri Lanka's largest conglomerate.

In spite of the disaster, Sri Lankan tourism officials were categorical in saying that the island would not be dropping the prices of its packages to attract more tourists. "We will not cut prices of the packages to Sri Lanka, but could look at offering more value-added products to the packages," Ms Perera said.

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