Sri Lanka becomes a Port of call for luxury liners.

 Sri Lanka has been earmarked as one of the most suitable tourist destination in the world by prestigious tourist literature publishers. Cruise ships carrying tourists have also started to anchor in the Sri Lankan ports.

Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, along with the officials of Sri Lanka Port Authority, last week welcomed the vessel ‘Arcadia’, at a brief ceremony held at the Colombo Port. This luxury carrier, owned by the UK based company Carnival PLC, had more than 2100 tourists on board from Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil.

The local excursion tour operator Gemini Tours and Travels have taken tourists arrived in the cruiser to prearranged destinations; Kandy, Pinnawala and Colombo City Tour.

Arcadia has 11 decks inclusive of a state-of-the-art swimming pool, an auditorium, a gym and a restaurant. Having set sail from the UK on the 3rd of January this year, the vessel was berthed at Cochin, India, just before resuming its journey to Colombo.

According to the Ports Authority officials, more than 20 such luxury carriers, coordinated by the Shipping Agency Services (Pvt) limited, had already been programmed to tie up in Colombo by the end of 2012.(niz)