The Embassy of Sri Lanka in Moscow successfully took part in the International Travel Fair "Expotravel – 2023" in Ural Region from 6th to 7th October 2023. The Honorary Consul of Sri Lanka in Yekaterinburg facilitated all necessary arrangements for the event at the highest level.

This tourism fair is considered as the major travel show in the Ural region which is a strategically important region in terms of bilateral cooperation in economic affairs. Due to its location on the border of the European and Asian parts of Russia, it opens the door to a large part of the country beyond the Ural Mountains. The main objective of this initiative is to promote Sri Lanka tourism in the out of Moscow regions in order to foster the growth momentum of Russian tourists visiting Sri Lanka. The Embassy secured opportunities to make presentations to a large gathering with a main focus on popularizing Sri Lanka as a year-round tourist destination in the world.

On the sidelines of the tourism fair, the Embassy team headed by H.E. the Ambassador attended rounds of productive discussions with the Sverdlovsk government officials, media, airlines, tour operators etc. in order to seek the assistance from the regional industry stakeholders for Sri Lanka tourism promotion.

H.E. the Ambassador delivered the speech followed by the colorful presentation during the Plenary Session on the sidelines of the Fair.
The same day H.E. the Ambassador was the Honorable guest for the press conference in TASS, the main news producer in the Russian Federation. Answering numerous questions of the reporters from all Russian mass medias H.E. revealed that the direct flight from Yekaterinburg to Sri Lanka starts on 4th November and there will be two Russian airlines on the route.

Another leading Mass Media from Ural Region, the Chelyabinsk TV interviewed the Ambassador on the bilateral relations with the Russian Federation and prospective of the tourism sector development.
Apart from tourism cooperation H.E. the Ambassador has conducted the meeting with the Ural State Federal University for the discussion of the progress in the earlier established cooperation.

Another meeting was with the Ural Economic University where H.E. was informed about the increased number of the Sri Lankan students getting education in this institution and further enhancement of collaboration was discussed.

At the evening reception organized by the Ural Tourism Association, the main organizer of the Exhibition, E.P. The Ambassador and Mr. Dammika Ekanayake, representing the host company LSR Travel, had the opportunity to discuss cooperation with potential partners in more detail in an informal setting.