Minister of Tourism Harin Fernando is looking at attracting football fans that are bound for the 2022 FIFA World Cup which is scheduled to be held in Qatar from November 20 to December 18, 2022.
The Minister said that Qatar may not have sufficient rooms to accommodate all spectators who will flock to Qatar for the World Cup and he plans to bring part of them to be in Sri Lanka and travel back when their country plays again.
“For this end we are talking to all leading airlines from the Gulf to increase frequency to Colombo to enable these spectators to take a break in Sri Lanka when their country doesn’t play matches.”
“I had a very successful meeting with Senior Vice President Emirates Ahmed Khoory to develop special packages for FIFA World Cup traffic and explore the possibility of increasing the frequency of flights to Colombo.”
“I also spoke to him regarding promoting Sri Lanka tourism through the airline inflight entertainment and other resources.”
This will be the first World Cup ever to be held in the Arab world and the second World Cup held entirely in Asia after the 2002 tournament in South Korea and Japan. (SS)
Add new comment