Sri Lanka’s diversity and compactness in tourism attracted many at the “Amazing Asia Festival” held in Antwerp region in Belgium from 14-16 June 2024.
The Embassy of Sri Lanka in Belgium in collaboration with Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau participated in this event organized by Mahanakhon VZW, which attracted over 20,000 attendees. The Embassy showcased different elements of Sri Lankan tourism combining authenticity, diversity and compactness which make Sri Lanka unique in the world tourism map along with Ceylon tea, Sri Lankan cuisine and a number of Sri Lankan products.
The Sri Lanka stall was positioned with unique tourism identity featuring tourism banners, videos, brochures and maps along with different cultural elements and Sri Lankan products of small and medium scale industries. Ceylon tea was served to the visitors at the stall during the three days that the festival was held. The food truck which was arranged alongside the Sri Lanka stall served a variety of authentic Sri Lankan foods to Belgian visitors.
The visitors who have previously travelled to Sri Lanka shared their fond memories and interesting experiences. Among them, there were visitors who want to revisit Sri Lanka and explore areas which they missed during their previous travels. In addition, there were a number of visitors with various interests such as tourists who have travelled to Asia when they were young but looking forward to enjoy Asia again, tourists who travel on long haul vacation twice a year, families that are travelling with children, tourists who are interesting in food, wildlife and nature, cultural sites and adventure.
This Festival provided an opportunity to promote Sri Lanka not only in Antwerp region, but also in other regions of Belgium. It also received visitors from neighboring countries like Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, France, Switzerland etc. This annual event has been held since 2019 to introduce Asian culture to Belgium, and to promote local experiences. The Amazing Asia Festival received over 1,000,000 impressions in digital & pressed newspapers, national spread in Belgium and featured more than 2,000,000 times in the national media in Belgium in the month leading up to the event. The event also had a strong digital presence and an engaged audience in social media.