Vipula Wanigasekera, Chief Executive Officer of Sri Lanka Convention Bureau, said the MICE business, which refers to meetings, incentives, conventions/conferences and exhibitions, has been steadily growing from India with the likes of Philips, Sony Ericsson, Cadbury, Canon India among a number of others choosing to host their meetings in Sri Lanka. A touring delegation from Sri Lanka wanted to emphasise the significance of Indian tourists in its plans to expand tourism and in addition its airliner in the region where it expects India and China forming a big chunk of visitors to the island nation.

Wanigasekera said the overall tourist arrivals into Sri Lanka exceeded 1.5-million mark in 2014, up from a mere 500,000 tourists in 2009.

This was projected to cross 2 to 2.5 million by next year, where MICE would play a big part in its growth volumes.

He said Sri Lanka has become a hotspot today for incentive travel, with a variety of attractions ranging from beaches, ancient cities, and mountains to the island s new attractions such as whale and bird watching, surfing, elephant gathering and leopard safaris.

Gayan Peiris, Manager SriLankan Holidays and part of Airlines, stated that the airliner currently operates 86 flights to seven destinations in India.

Courtesy: The Gulf Today