Sri Pada ("Adam's Peak") Annual Pilgrimage Season

Hatton Adam’s Peak or Sri Pada is an important pilgrim site. The devotees of many religions climb the mountain to invoke blessings. Buddhist believes the impression on the summit is the footprint of the Buddha. Sripada is the 4th highest mountain in Sri Lanka and it takes 4-5 hours to reach the peak by foot. The mountain is also named as Samanala Kanda or Butterfly Mountain. The area is rich in biodiversity and surrounded by the Peak Wilderness Sanctuary. The pilgrimage season starts on Unduwap Poya.

The season begins in December and ends in April.

Sri Lanka Tourism Celebrates ‘Avurudu’ With Foreign Visitors

Under the theme of “Sri Lanka Hospitality 2013”, Sri Lanka Tourism celebrated Sinhala and Hindu New year (Avurudu) at Negombo beach (Opposite Hotel Camelot) today. The celebration was rich with Sinhala and Hindu ‘Avurudu’ rituals, which are exclusively found in Sri Lanka.

Under the guidance of Hon. Basil Rajapaksa, the Minister of Economic Development, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) has already taken steps to provide exposure of the unique Sri Lankan culture and rituals to the world and thereby to convey the message that Sri Lanka is a very positive destination. The ‘Avurudu’ celebrations were also done with this purpose.

Sri Lanka Attracts High End French Tourist Group

The growing demand from incentive Travelers in the MICE tourism segment had increased quite sharply over the past years who are traveling mainly for the purpose business and investment. Sri Lanka Tourism has identified MICE segment as a key driver of tourism growth and a contributor for overall economic development of Sri Lanka. As a result of the Wonder of Asia promotional campaign initiated by Ministry of Economic Development and Sri Lanka Tourism in Europe, Sri Lankan Travel agents have been receiving many up market incentive groups to Sri Lanka during the recent past. One of Sri Lanka’s leading travel agents Connaisance De Ceylon received a group of 130 pax incentive group from Toulouse – France on 26th March which is latest addition to the group incentive travelers visiting the country.

The group consisted of high end tourists from France representing different segments and mainly looking for investment opportunities in Sri Lanka. Due to the new infrastructure developments in the country especially in the areas of domestic air travel, the group took flight using MI 17 helicopters of Heli Tours. A fleet of 06 helicopters carried the incentive group for sightseeing tour from Kandy to down south. The Helitours Pvt Ltd unveiled its newest fleet of helicopters recently which are highly sophisticated for tourist travel.