Barmy Army to boost Sri Lanka tourism

COLOMBO: Advance bookings for England's winter cricket tour of Sri Lanka has been rising steadily even as fighting between troops and Tamil Tiger rebels escalates, officials said on Monday.

A tour organising official at Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said at least 4,000 bookings by British cricket fans have been almost finalised and more were in the pipeline. "We are very happy with the response," the SLC official said.

The cricket board is teaming up with the island's tourism authority to have special counters at London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports, and at Colombo airport here, to handle the 'Barmy Army', as English supporters are called.

England will tour Sri Lanka in two stages, with the one-day internationals being played in October and the three-Test series in December.

Sri Lanka's tourism officials expect the tour to lift sagging arrival figures, which have suffered from the violence with nearly 5,000 people killed in the past 18 months.

The SLC official said British fans seemed undeterred.

"You must remember that England tour in 2001-02 attracted a huge contingent of fans despite the (rebel) attack on the airport just six months before the tour," he said.

Arrivals from Britain, a major market for Sri Lanka tourism, had fallen 13.7 in April over the same month a year earlier, according to tourist board figures.

But the English tour could swell numbers if the current promotional work became a success, the SLC official said.

England will play the one-day leg mostly in the north-central town of Dambulla, which is a major cultural heritage site with the famous rock fortress of Sigiriya in the backdrop.

The Tests are to be played in Colombo, the southern sea port city of Galle and the popular hill resort of Kandy. "The Galle Test is likely to be well patronised by British tourists given the work of British charities there in the post-tsunami era," the official said.

It will be the first Test match in Galle since the town was devastated by the December 2004 tsunami.