Sri Lanka signed tourism marketing agreements with two Gulf carriers at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, renewing a four-year partnership with Emirates and concluding a fresh memorandum with Qatar Airways, according to reports from Hiru News and the Daily Mirror.
The two outlets report the same trade fair but split the story between them. Hiru covers only the Emirates renewal; the Daily Mirror is alone in disclosing that the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau’s campaign “was supported by new memoranda of understanding with Emirates and Qatar Airways”. Neither outlet gives the Qatar Airways agreement’s terms.
What was signed
The Emirates memorandum was signed by Essa Sulaiman Ahmad, the airline’s Senior Vice President of Commercial for West Asia and the Indian Ocean, and Chamila Jayarathna, Deputy Managing Director of the SLTPB. It extends a collaboration first established in 2022 covering joint marketing campaigns, customised excursions, trade incentives and familiarisation trips.
Emirates flies to almost 140 destinations across six continents. The airline identifies Russia, the UK, Germany, Australia and the United States as the markets in its network contributing most to Sri Lankan arrivals. Ahmad said Sri Lanka is “among the longest-standing destinations in our network, having served it for over 40 years”.
Sri Lanka’s pavilion was inaugurated by Professor Arusha Cooray, Ambassador to the UAE, and Alexi Gunasekera, Consul General in Dubai. The Bureau took 58 representatives of the local travel industry to the four-day event and held a dedicated press conference, pitching wellness, wildlife, cultural heritage and scenic landscapes — an explicit attempt to sell the island to Gulf travellers as something other than a beach destination.
A trade fair that moved twice
The Daily Mirror places ATM 2026 on 14–17 September at the Dubai World Trade Centre, under the theme “Travel 2040: Driving New Frontiers Through Innovation and Technology”. That is not where the show normally sits: the Arabian Travel Market is a May fixture, and the 2026 edition was first scheduled for 4–7 May, then moved to 17–20 August, before settling on its September dates.
Neither outlet mentions the rescheduling. It matters for reading the calendar — a Gulf tourism push that would ordinarily land in the spring has arrived four months later, in the run-up to the northern-hemisphere winter season rather than well ahead of it.
The arrivals backdrop
Hiru cites more than 2.3 million international arrivals last year, up 15.1% on just over 2 million the year before. The current year has been harder: Sri Lanka had drawn 1.6 million visitors by mid-September, and earnings rose in August for the first time in ten months after a long run of year-on-year declines.
Not reported
What the Qatar Airways memorandum commits either side to, and whether it is a renewal or a first agreement; the value or duration of the Emirates deal; whether either carrier is adding Colombo capacity; how many of the 58 industry representatives were state-funded; and what the Bureau expects the Middle East to contribute to arrivals.
