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**COLOMBO, May 16 (APD) ** - Sri Lanka and Israel are discussing the introduction of charter flights to boost tourism between the two countries, the Sri Lanka Tourism Ministry said here Tuesday.
While Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka from Israel has seen a rapid growth in recent months, the Ministry said that Israeli Minister of Tourism, Yariv Levin will visit Sri Lanka later this year to further boost ties between the two nations.
Levin will arrive following an official invitation extended by Sri Lankas Tourism Minister John Amaratunga.
"Im very pleased that that the Israeli Tourism Minister has accepted my invitation to visit Sri Lanka later this year. I received this confirmation a few days ago. This visit will help consolidate the rapid progress Sri Lanka Tourism has made in the Israeli outbound market in the recent past," said Minister Amaratunga.
The two Tourism Ministers met on the sidelines of the International Mediterranean Tourism Market (IMTM) held in Tel Aviv, Israel recently where bilateral discussions were held on the development of tourism between the two countries.
During the extensive discussions one of the key impediments for growth was identified as the limited connectivity between the two countries.
The Ministers decided to explore options including the introduction of charter flights to overcome the bottlenecks, the Tourism Ministry said.
"Tourist arrivals from Israel have been on a steep ascent in the last two years. I believe this is a direct result of the personal interaction I have had with the Israeli Minister of Tourism who has been very supportive of our efforts. Im happy to see the positive outcome of these efforts," noted Minister Amaratunga.
In a scenario where arrivals from the Middle East region grew by just 6.5 percent in 2016, arrivals from Israel indicated an extraordinary growth rate of 33.4 percent for the year. This impressive growth momentum has been carried forward into 2017 as well with arrivals from Israel for the period January to April indicating a positive growth rate of 27 percent when overall growth from the Middle Region was a negative 5.6 percent compared to the previous year, the Tourism Ministry said.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
