SriLankan Airlines eyes more Indian tourists with Ramayana Trail package

Seeing India as a place that offers "enormous growth" opportunities, SriLankan Airlines aims to increase flights to the country as well as attract more tourists, including with the Ramayana Trail package, according to a top airline official.

The Ramayana Trail will help people connect with 20 significant locations in Sri Lanka that are linked to the Ramayana story.

SriLankan Airlines CEO Richard Nuttall said growth in the number of tourists from India has been stellar this year but still below the pre-Covid numbers.

He was speaking at a function in the national capital for the launch of the Ramayana Trail package on Saturday evening. High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to India Kshenuka Senewiratne was also present.

Till the end of October this year, around 20 per cent of the tourists who came to Sri Lanka were from India.

"We have been looking at how to lift and rejuvenate tourism from India to Sri Lanka to the next level," he said while mentioning the Ramayana Trail and added that it was time to do something different.

Currently, the airline operates 88 flights a week to nine destinations in India -- Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi, Trivandrum, Chennai, Trichy and Madurai.

Emphasising that the airline sees India as a place of "enormous growth and possibilities", Nuttall said it wants to be part of that growth and is working with its Indian partners.

He said the airline aims to have more frequencies to the Indian cities that it already operates and offer more flights at convenient times.

In due course, he said the carrier will look to add more destinations.

Kshenuka Senewiratne said Ramayana is not merely a story, it is a tapestry encapsulating culture, spirituality and heritage. "For centuries it has been a source of inspiration and guidance fostering connections between India and Sri Lanka through mythology, traditions and values in which people to people's ties have always been at the core," she said.

Through Ramayana Trail package, she said SriLankan Airlines is not only offering an opportunity to redefine the significant locations but also to celebrate the country's rich cultural and natural heritage.

As part of the trail, "visit Seetha Amman Temple, where Sita is said to have prayed during her captivity, and stand in awe of Rumassala Hill, where a piece of the Himalayas is believed to have landed, dropped by Hanuman. Every stop is a connection to your spiritual heritage, bringing the stories of the Ramayana alive," the airline release said.