The Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO), the national apex body of India’s tourism industry, held its Outbound Convention 2017 in Sri Lanka from 2-4 October

The three-day summit, hosted by the Sri Lanka Convention Bureau (SLCB) in collaboration with IATO, is expected see 300-400 participants representing inbound tour operators, travel agents, hotel chains, airlines, media and other stakeholders in the tourism and hospitality industries from India.

Tourism Development Minister John Amaratunga described the IATO Outbound Convention in Sri Lanka as a vote of confidence in the country’s rapidly developing tourism industry.

SLCB Chairman Prema Cooray said it is a great opportunity for the travel trade of Sri Lanka to meet with their counterparts from India and to cement their relationships further to strengthen this very important market.

Today the market has improved from 125,000 tourists in 2010 to 360,000 last year, while expecting the arrivals from the country to increase to 400,000 by the year-end.

“In my opinion, the Indian market has no borders. there is a lot of scope to expand. We can go towards a mark of perhaps one million tourists from India in the foreseeable future,” Cooray expressed.

IATO has a membership of over 1,600 from across the country.

“With so many entities involved, the main advantage of the convention is the publicity and promotional activity created for Sri Lanka just by holding the event in the country,” he added.

Noting that close to 4,000 medical organisation representatives from India visited Sri Lanka recently, Cooray pointed out that the numbers that could come from the leisure and MICE segments were huge. (CDS)

Source: http://www.ft.lk/travel-tourism/John-urges-industry-to-woo-more-Indian–Chinese-MICE-tourism/27-639398