By promoting Sri Lanka as a major holiday destination with everything a tourist needs, Sri Lanka Tourism demonstrated its ability to capture key source markets such as France. The initiative was launched at the International Luxury Travel Mart (ILTM) 2024 in Cannes, France, the world’s leading luxury travel event. The event took place from December 2 to 5 and recorded over 85,000 participants and marked the biggest edition of the event to date. Over 2350 brands from 105 countries attended, as well as an extensive program of networking events. Sri Lanka Tourism also participated in promoting exclusive luxury sectors with 12 industry partners showcasing their unmatched luxury travel offerings.
ILTM 2024 kicked off on 02 December 2024 with a forum featuring globally recognized industry experts, addressing over 3000 attendees featuring inspiring presentations for the global luxury and travel community.
After four years, Sri Lanka Tourism participated in this event for the fourth consecutive time. As France is an important source market for Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka tourism industry partners did their best to showcase their promotional materials to attract participants to consider their next holiday destination. Sri Lanka’s promotional materials, themes and attractions attracted visitors and left them impressed with what the destination had to offer.
ILTM Cannes hosted more than 100 of the world’s most influential travel editors, who were a significant part of the event, giving voice to luxury travel to their high net worth readers and communities across the globe from all publications and platforms. Several of these tourism consultants and exhibitors praised the event and expressed their positive views about the event.
The creative design of the Sri Lankan showcase stood out from the rest and the colorful cultural performances by the traditional dance troupes attracted many visitors. Learning about the different cultures, traditions and tourist spots of each country was a dynamic yet interesting experience for all who attended. Sri Lanka’s participation also included B2B meetings with foreign industry stakeholders and discussions on encouraging more French tourists to visit Sri Lanka and building more business partnerships. Mr. Wiranga Bandara, Assistant Director handling the French market, represented SLTPB. The participation was successful as many visitors expressed interest in visiting Sri Lanka. The Sri Lanka delegation consisted of 12 industry stakeholders such as ArTravele Sri Lanka, Ayu in the Wild Holidays (Pvt) Ltd, Anantara Peace Haven Tangalle Resort, Travel Design by CDC (Pvt ) Ltd, Sri Lanka in style, Atypique Lanka (Pvt) . . Ltd, The Fabulous Getaway , Boutiques in Sri Lanka , Authenticities, Galle Face Hotel, Curate, and Sri Lanka Tailor Made.
This was an ideal opportunity to announce Sri Lanka’s long-planned latest promotional activities, projects and initiatives, in addition to the new government’s plans to develop the tourism sector with increasing tourist arrivals. Apart from Sri Lanka’s culture, history, scenic spots and authentic cuisine, the participants seemed very impressed with the unique boutiques and luxury products that Sri Lanka has to offer.
The four-day event offered a dynamic mix of exclusive pre-planned business meetings, insightful educational sessions and powerful networking opportunities, all of which showcased Sri Lanka’s unique charm and potential as a leading destination for luxury travelers.
The Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) participated in ILTM 2024 in collaboration with the Embassy of Sri Lanka in France, and joined to increase Sri Lanka’s impact at ILTM 2024. As of December 11, 2024, 84,009 tourists from France have been recorded. , and ranked 6th among the top 20 source markets for Sri Lanka.
