Greetings to all!
Good tidings for Sri Lanka Tourism is noted with a significant move made on Tuesday with the appointment of the much awaited National Tourism Advisory Committee that comprised the corporate and public sector. Meanwhile we feature on this page, the popular Pekoe Trail in our ‘Travelogue’ and share the news of Sri Lanka’s remarkable achievement to have the Pekoe trail recongnised as TIME Magazine’s Greatest Places of 2025.
This week in the Sunday Observer Explorer we also feature a veteran in the Tourism Industry, Chandra Wickramasinghe, in the ‘Hot Seat’ on page 3, whose name incidentally we found to our delight, well after the Explorer interview was concluded, in the list selected to serve the national Tourism Advisory Committee appointed by Tourism Minister Vijitha Herath.
Wickramasinghe’s views are valuable and it will stand in good stead for Sri Lanka to have these industry veterans lead and guide the way forward.
There is a new concept of promoting Sri Lanka as an all- seasons destination in the tourism development drive, so as to focus on and promote the lesser known destinations where one can visit during the so called off peak. Industry experts have expressed insufficient publicity and awareness on them as one of the reasons for travellers to overlook these areas thus far.
We at Sunday Observer Explorer take the initiative in our column of Discover Sri Lanka, this week to initiate spotlighting the lesser known areas as well and have featured Kalpitiya located in the North Western Province, that has the potential to take the tourists by storm especially the Kitesurfers. Although some may think it’s the end of the tourist season end March – one does not realize it could well be the start for yet another province in our country – if the right promotion is done for the right place at the right time. In Kalpitiya there are two distinct kite seasons- although the winter season runs from mid- December to mid- March, the summer season is from mid- May to October. Therefore the latter can be ideally promoted while other tourist areas are off season.
City events
The diverse community of Colombo came together at a number of Ifthar events in Colombo. To get a different and interesting perspective from a visitor to the country, it was a delight to have met a special guest at one of the city Ifthar functions- Bhadri Durgabakshi, a one-time journalist who was attached to the World Bank enjoying the food, ambience and the culture and traditions of the Ifthar event at Cinnamon Lakeside. We feature her views expressed exclusively to the Sunday Observer Explorer on page 35.
Win Airline tickets
We call upon the readers to fill in the answers to the questions posed in the Coupon on page 1 of the Sunday Observer Explorer and cut out the coupon and mail it to the address given below. You stand a chance to win free air tickets offered by Sri Lankan Airlines every two months to your choice of destinations from the list mentioned. Conditions apply and please see on this page, the conditions on left bottom corner.
Entries are flooding in and we invite you all to participate in this exciting competition to be the one to get “Sky High Wins”!
Crown News
We continue to feature news from the beauty and glamour world. Watch out for more on this in the Explorer where there will be an opportunity for readers to enter a competition where you pick on who you think would win the crown and you will in the process, stand to win prizes !
We feature this week as the last but not the least, an area that has gathered much momentum globally and locally. According to a new report from the Global Wellness Institute, a leading industry group, the global wellness industry was worth $6.32 trillion in 2023, 25% larger than it was in 2019, making it bigger than the sports and pharmaceutical industries.
Yoga and meditation are very much part of the program of wellness and wellbeing and with so many centres opening up locally lately, it indicates that the numbers are swelling due its demand. We commence this week, for your leisure reading, a feature on Yoga and its benefits to not only strengthen and heal you physically but essentially renowned to be excellent for your mental health.
Enjoy the read on Yoga on the back cover of Explorer.
Wish you all Happy Reading and a wonderful week
