Next March, Korean Air will start serving Colombo and Male out of Seoul. The airline especially believes in the high potential of Sri Lanka as an emerging tourist destination for the Korean travel market.
SEOUL- Favourable conditions in the tourism sector in Sri Lanka have provided the foundation and the opportunity for Korean Air to resume operations in Sri Lanka.
Korean Air will launch a three-time weekly service with the first flights starting on March 9, 2013. Flying out of Seoul/Incheon, the KE aircraft will first make a stop to Colombo in Sri Lanka and then onto Male in Maldives. Korean Air’s new Seoul/Incheon-Colombo-Male route will be operated with an Airbus 330-300, offering capacity seating for 276 passengers and equipped with Korean Air’s premium seats.
According to statistics almost 25% of the total Korean population travel overseas for leisure. Further statistics show that around 30,000 Koreans fly to Maldives annually and around 6,000 Koreans visit Sri Lanka annually. This is due to the lack of direct flights from Korea to Sri Lanka. It is hoped that with the resumption of direct flights to Sri Lanka the number of Korean tourists visiting Sri Lanka too would increase. The airline hopes also to attract tourists from China and Japan with its short transfer time at Incheon Airport. The carrier hopes also that many Sri Lankan flying overseas will use Korean Air to go on a holiday or visit their family.
There is a potential growth in the number of tourists visiting Sri Lanka with the 2.5 million tourist benchmark set for 2016.
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
