Sri Lanka welcomes one millionth tourist in 2012

Achieving another remarkable milestone in the country’s booming tourism industry, Sri Lanka Tourism welcomed the arrival of 1,000,000th tourist in year 2012 at Bandaranaike International Airport on 31st December 2012.

Lakshman Yapa Abeywardhana, Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism- Bhashwara Gunarathna , Kamal Rathwaththa – Deputy Chairman Of Airport and Aviation(LTD), Managing Director of Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau – Rumy Jauffer with a group of representatives from travel and tourism industry warmly welcomed the guest Ms. Jiang Ying and her husband from China who arrived in Sri Lanka via flight UL 889 from Beijing at 10.00 p.m. Sri Lanka Tourism took steps to arrange a special ceremony to welcome the 1,000,000th guest.

Sri Lanka Tourism gavec special gifts for being the lucky couple from China to pass the milestone, so that their next stay in Sri Lanka will be absolutely free. Ms. Jiang Ying, being the happy visitor to arrive in Sri Lanka as the 1,000,000th tourist for the year 2012, said "I had heard a lot about Sri Lanka from my friends. I found out details about your country before deciding my holiday destination. I was simply bewitched by the photos on the internet. Sri Lanka is as beautiful and breathtaking as presented in the photos. Moreover, Sri Lankans are very hospitable and kind."

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British Airways names Sri Lanka as the top destination in year 2013.

Sri Lanka has topped the 13 destinations categorized as popular favorite places to visit next year.

This ranking has been accorded to Sri Lanka by a panel of experts assigned by British Airways to compile a list of the top 13 new destinations and popular favorite places to visit in 2013. 

Beautiful beaches, heritage sites, hospitality and no restrictions on travel are the reasons for this nomination. The British Airways points out different climates experienced in Sri Lanka is also another reason for this decision. Meanwhile, the one millionth tourist for this year arrived last night. There was a marked development in tourism this year. In the year 2010 the number of tourists visited Sri Lanka amounted 650 thousand.

The Panel of Experts have made their determination based on tourists heading to the island in increasing numbers after the end of terrorism, attractions like beaches, elephant treks and a large number of UNESCO world heritage sites to visit in the country.

The other destinations are Croatia; Vietnam; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; Derry, Northern Ireland; Las Vegas, USA; Tbilisi, Georgia; San Diego, California, USA; Cape Town, South Africa; Alicante, Spain; and Dubai, UAE. (niz)
British Airways will resume direct flights to Colombo from Gatwick,UK in March 2013. This is an addition to Lonely Planet endorsement for Sri Lanka as best destination to travel for 2013 among global tourism destinations.

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Floating Restaurant on Scenic Diyawanna Oya

Sri Lanka Navy's latest hospitality venture, SLN Floating Restaurant, set sail on the scenic Diyawanna Oya offering a novel experience to the booming leisure industry in the country. The event, one of many launched to reap peace dividends for the national development, was inaugurated by Secretary of Defence and Urban Development, Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksha on 22^nd December 2012. Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Roshan Gunathilake, Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy, Vice Admiral Jayanath Colombage, Chief of Staff, Director General Operations and Director General Engineering of the Sri Lanka Navy were also present on the occasion.

SLN Floating Restaurant equipped with all amenities is ideal for receptions, weddings and corporate events. It is custom-built by the Navy incorporating comfort and safety to cater to its clients' diverse needs. Catering is handled by the Waters Edge and the facility is manned by SLN personnel. Clients can now enjoy a relaxing meal while afloat in the scenic waters of Diyawanna Oya, comforted by caressing cool breeze marveling the lush greenery along the lake banks.

Source - Click here

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Sri Pada season in Sri Lanka began.

The annual season to visit Sri Pada, the most sacred mountain in Sri Lanka, began on 27th December 2012, the Unduwap Poya Day.
The annual season starts from full moon (Poya Day) of December and end on the Vesak Poya Day, full moon of May.
All the arrangements for the season have been made and sacred relics will be brought to the top of the Peak today, said Ven Bengamuve Dhammadinna Thero of the Sri Pada Temple.
A series of religious ceremonies were held at the Raja Maha Viharaya of Galpoththavela, Pelmadulla in Ratnapura Wednesday and a procession from the temple will bring the shrines to the peak.
According to the sources the security has been tightened in the area, especially from Nallathanniya to Sri Pada. All the facilities for the devotees such as water, food and sanitations have been provided.
Authorities have asked the devotees to refrain from bringing alcohol and polythene to the sacred area.
Sri Pada, also known as Adam's Peak has been proclaimed as a world heritage site by the UNESCO.
Hundreds of thousands of local and foreign devotees belonged to all four major religions - Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, and Muslims- trek to the summit of the sacred mountain each year during the season.

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Sri Lanka tourist arrivals reach record high in November

Sri Lanka's tourist arrivals rose 20.1 percent to a record high in November this year compared to the same period last year, the data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) showed.
The month recorded 109,202 tourists arriving in the country compared to the 90,889 arrived in November 2011.
Arrivals during the first eleven months of the year increased 16.5 percent to 883,353 from the 758,458 arrived in the same period last year to surpass the total arrivals for 2011.
Arrivals from North America rose 34.5 percent to 5,798 in November with Canada rising 30.4 percent to 2,542 and USA rising 37.8 percent to 3,256. For the first eleven months of 2012, North American arrival rose by 22.3 percent to 52,761.
Tourist arrivals from Western Europe reached 329,364 during the first 11 months of 2012, a 17.0 percent increase from the same period of last year.
Arrivals from Eastern Europe increased 45.5 percent from January through November 2012 with the arrival of 62,497 tourists.
During the first eleven months, tourist arrivals from Middle East however declined 4.8 percent to 50,096 from 52,597 from the same period of 2011.
Arrivals from South Asia for this year increased moderately. In the first eleven months 226,114 South Asians visited Sri Lanka, a 3.9 percent increase from the same period in previous year. Of the 26,649 arrived in November 2012, a majority, 17,625 were from India.
Sri Lanka targets one million tourist arrivals this year and expects to earn over US$ 1 billion this year from tourism opposed to the US$ 830.3 million earned last year.
SLTDA statistics have recorded 855,975 tourist arrivals in 2011 compared to the 654,476 arrived in 2010.
Since the end of the war against the Tamil Tiger terrorists in May 2009, the country has seen tourist arrivals increasing steadily every year for the past three years.

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Beautifull Pictures of Sri Lanka

Hathmale Falls - Deniyaya

Horton Plains 

Laxapana Falls

Patanangala Beach - Yala National Park

National Botanical Garden - Peradeniya

Reverstan Peak - Knuckles Mountain Range

Bambarakanda Falls 

Bomburu Ella - Welimada

Bopath Ella - Kuruwita, Ratnapura

Nilaveli Beach

National Botanical Garden - Peradeniya

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Divaguhawa found

වසර 2593 කට පෙර බුදුන් වැඩ සිටි දිවාගුහාව සොයා ගැනීමට හැකි වූ බව ශ‍්‍රි පාදස්ථානාධිපති බෙන්ගමුවේ ධම්මදින්න නායක හිමියෝ පැවසූහ. දිවාගුහාව බුදුන් වහන්සේ ශ‍්‍රිපාදස්ථානයට වැඩම කළ අවස්ථාවේ දිවා විවරණ ලැබු ස්ථානය බව පැවසේ. ශි‍්‍ර පාද පත්මයට මීටර් 100ක් පමණ පහළින් පිහිටා ඇති දිවාගුහාව තුළ සෙල්ලිපියක් හා නිශ්ශංකමල්ල රජුගේ ශෛලමය රුවක්ද ඇත. සෙල් ලිපියේ නිශ්ශංකමල්ල රජු ශ‍්‍රි පාදය කරුණා කිරිමට පැමිණි බව සදහන් වේ. බුදුන් වහන්සේ සමනොල ගිරට වැඩි අවස්ථාවේ සුමන සමන් දෙවියන් විසින් බණක් කියන්නට බුදුන්වහන්සේට ආරාධනා කර තිබේ. නමුත් එම අවස්ථාවේදිම තමන්ට දිව්‍ය දේව සභාවට සහභාගි වීමට තිබූ බව සමන් දෙවියන්ට අමතක විය. ඒ නිසා එකම තැනකදී දෙතැනක පෙනී සිටින්නේ කෙසේද යන ප‍්‍රශ්නය ඇතිවු නිසාත්, බුදුන් වහන්සේට වූ පොරොන්දුව කැඞීමට නොහැකි නිසාත් සමන් දෙවියන් එයට කදිම උපක‍්‍රමයක් යෙදු බව පොත් පත් වල ස`දහන් වේ. එ් අනුව බුදුන් වහන්සේගෙන් බණ ඇසීමට තමන්ගේ රූපයට සමාන රූපයක් මවා දිවාගුහාවට යවා ඇති අතර එය දැනගත් බුදුන් වහන්සේද තමන්ගේ රූපකායට සමාන ශරීරයක් මවා බණ කියන්නට තබා දඹදිව වැඩි බව ස`දහන් වේ.

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