Sri Lanka will welcome around 350 tourists a week from Kazakhstan till April 2021, with two airlines running weekly charters, helping revive the sector, Aitken Spence Travels, an inbound tour operator said.
Aitken Spence Travels said it is partnering with TUI Kazakhstan to bring the tourists, under the bio-bubble rules for tourists set by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority and health authorities.
“The commencements of charter flights from Kazakhstan to Sri Lanka will help restart the organised tourism industry immediately,” the firm said.
“It is expected to create an economic boost for the tourism industry and its stakeholders by reviving the much-needed tourism-related jobs of the industry.”
Air Astana will fly every Saturday from February 06, till April 2021.
SCAT Airlines will fly every Thursday till April 2021.
“This is an investment from Aitken Spence Travels to revive the Tourism Industry as a whole,” Nalin Jayasundera, Managing Director of Aitken Spence Travels said in a statement.
“We look forward to a larger scale operation in the future from Russia and the CIS region based on the success of this operation.
“The Tourism Authority has stipulated high standards of health guidelines and protocols. However, we are confident that even with these challenging conditions the operations would be a success.”
A majority of Kazakhstan travellers prefer 4-star & 5-star hotel accommodation but there are also tourists who will patronize other categories, Aitken Spence Travels said.
They travel together as families with children. The average stay is 7 nights while 20 per cent of the bookings are for the two weeks, the firm said.
(Economy Next)
