A surge in Polish visitors to Sri Lanka this Winter/Spring season is expected due to the increase in direct Polish charter flights form Warsaw and other Polish cities, to Colombo and Mattala airports. These include LOT Charters (a fully owned subsidiary of LOT Polish Airlines – Boeing 787 Dreamliner)), SkyUp Airlines (Boeing 737-800 NG) and Enter Air (largest Polish charter airline and second largest in Europe), in addition to the regular Turkish Airlines’ flights carrying Polish tourists to Sri Lanka from Warsaw via Istanbul.
A fresh impetus to activating further interest in destination Sri Lanka, was given by the recent official unveiling of LOT Polish Airlines’ 2024-2028 Strategy, which identified Sri Lanka among the profitable Asian destinations.
Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Poland Dhammika Kumari Semasinghe, invitee of LOT Polish Chief Commercial Officer Michał Fijoł to the unveiling ceremony, welcomed the news that ITAKA Travels, a top Polish tour operator, in collaboration with LOT Charters and its Sri Lanka partner, will operate direct flights from Warsaw to Colombo, from 4 January until 21 March 2024.
While ENTER Air began its flights to Sri Lanka in November 2023, SkyUp Airlines will commence its first direct flight from Warsaw to Mattala on 18 December 2023, and for the first time, its second and third inaugural flights from Southern Polish cities Katowice and Rzeszów on 22 and 25 December, respectively, and continue until 16 April 2024.
The Sri Lanka Embassy in Warsaw has continued to maintain the momentum of its destination promotional activities in creative ways using different platforms.
Integrating trade and travel promotional activities, the Sri Lanka Mission continues to participate in public diplomacy events in different Polish cities and towns through its established networks.
Sri Lanka’s standing in Poland, as an attractive destination in Asia, has substantially increased since August 2021, which resulted in Poland’s ranking among the top ten tourism source countries for Sri Lanka from December 2021 until May 2022. The country has also been identified by the Sri Lanka Tourism as a new tourism generating country in Central Europe.
