ATOR: Sri Lanka plans to support tourist charters from Russia

“Sri Lanka intends to support tourist charters from Russia, but we have no specific measures reported yet”, - the press service of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) said with reference to the representatives of the state authorities of the country. The representative of the state bureau for the promotion of tourism of Sri Lanka Enoka Gayatri said that the government of the country has plans for state support of charter flights. "The leading tour operators which organize charter flights to Sri Lanka have contacted us and we intend to take concrete steps to support the flights", - she said, adding that it is too early to talk about the details. Sri Lanka's ambassador to Russia, Dr. Saman Virasinghe said that from January to August of this year Sri Lanka was visited by 36,000 tourists from Russia, which is 2.5 thousand more than a year ago. According to S.Virasinghe, over the past few years Sri Lanka has raised its tourist rating in the world and in Russia. In March, as part of the visit to Russia of the President of Sri Lanka, was signed a memorandum on cooperation in the field of tourism between Ministry of Culture of Russian Federation and Ministry of Tourism of Sri Lanka. The hosting companies of Sri Lanka are also considering the possible support of Russian tour operators in organization of promotional tours. Representatives of host companies and hoteliers note that Russian tourists prefer beach rest on the "all inclusive" system. In recent years Sri Lanka has opened a lot of hotels of world chains which are operating on this basis.