Having foreseen the ideal opportunity to promote Sri Lanka as the world’s best destination in South Asia, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, made arrangements to participate at the31^st Korea World Travel Fair for the consecutive 4^th year along with 10 local partners of the Tourism industry.

Opening of Sri Lanka Pavilion at KOTFA 2016 From Left-Representative from Sri Lanka Tourism,Sri Lanka Embassy in South Korea and Trade Participants from Sri Lanka

In parallel to the event, a couple of road shows also were organized in Seoul and Busan in collaboration with Sri Lankan Embassy in South Korea.

Visitors at the Sri Lanka Pavilion during KOTFA 2016

KOTFA (Korea World Travel Fair) known as the biggest international travel fair in Korea, has been held for 30 years. In collaboration with UNWTO and PATA, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Korea Tourism Organization, Visit Korea Committee and Korean Air sponsored the fair. KOTFA offers a huge open market for mutual relationship among tourism businesses at home and abroad for enhancing the competitiveness of domestic and overseas tourism

KOTFA Chairman presenting the award for Best Publicity to Ms Dilukshi Wickramasinghe-Junior Manager - Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau

Featured attraction of the Sri Lanka Pavilion this year was the performance of the Cultural Dance troupe and it was a eye catching attraction at the main stage of KOTFA-2016 and visitors who visited to the Sri Lanka Pavilion were welcomed with a cup of Ceylon tea.

KOTFA Chairman presenting the award for Best Publicity to Ms Dilukshi Wickramasinghe-Junior Manager - Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau and the Sri Lankan Cultural Performance team

At the conclusion of the event Sri Lanka tourism was awarded twice for the Best Publicity and for the Best Performance among exhibiting nations.

Sri Lanka Tourism Road show in Seoul-Sri Lanka Tourism Representative, Sri Lanka Embassy in South Korea Representatives,Sri Lanka Trade participants and Korean Trade representative

Coinciding with the KOTFA 2016 event the road shows made a great platform to strengthen the business relationship between Sri Lanka Travel and Tourism Industry and South Korean Travel and Tourism Industry.

During the B2B meetings at road shows in Seoul and in Busan

Coinciding for the same,Sri Lanka Tourism in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Embassy organized the Sri Lanka Cultural evening on behalf of the Celebration of Birthday of two elephants namely Gajaba and Sugala donated by Sri Lanka to Seoul Zoo with a view to promoting Sri Lanka among the large number of Korean visitors to the Zoo.

Two Sri Lankan Elephants Gajaba and Sugala in the Seoul Zoo donated by Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan Cultural performance team presented their performance to decorate the at the event. In addition to that,an Art Competition was also held for children to submit drawings of Sri Lankan elephants which were also displayed at the event venue. In addition to the general audience,the tourism related entities in Korea and Media personals were also invited by the Mission. The venue was decorated with banners with the images of Sri Lanka. Two elephants Gajaba and Sugala were treated with the fruits and milk while the visitors were served with Sri Lankan food items and Ceylon tea as the conclusion of the event.

Performance of the Sri Lankan Cultural Performance team and the visitors gathering

H.E Ms Manisha Gunasekara the ambassador for Sri Lanka in Seoul and Director of Seoul Zoo address the gathering