Also in the picture are Sandith Samarasinghe Sri Lanka Consul General, Melbourne (fourth from left), Chalaka Gajabahu, Chairman Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (sixth form left), Tikiri Ellepola President of CR and FC (seventh from left) and Dilroy Fernando(extreme right). Picture by Sudath Nishantha.

Sri LankaTourism Promotion Bureau, in collaboration with the Sri Lankan Consul General Office in Melbourne, Ministry of Sports and Agoal Rugby, organized a Rugby tournament in order to promote Sri Lanka as a Sports Tourism destination and give an opportunity to young Sri Lankan Rugby players to showcase their talent both locally and internationally. Sri Lanka Tourism has always been a keen supporter of Sports tourism and this will highlight Sri Lanka as an ideal destination to hold sports events with its diverse opportunities for any event.Sri Lanka Airlines was the main Airline partner for this occasion, supported by Carson and Cumberbatch PLC.

The purpose of this tournament is to assess the standards of the local women rugby players and offer overseas training Scholarships to selected players. The women’s Rugby Tournament took place on the 29th of August 2023 at the CR and FC Grounds with the participation of four Women’s Rugby teams Army SC, Air Force SC, CR and FC and Navy SC. A special training program was held for several Girls and Boys schools from Colombo between 3.00 p.m to 4.30 p.m at the same venue.
Sandith Samarasinghe, Sri Lanka Consul General in Melbourne, said that the Consulate in Melbourne started communicating with the Melbourne Rebels CEO, Baden Stephenson, and Neil Hay, President of Rugby Victoria.

They held fruitful discussions in order the promote Womens Rugby in Sri Lanka and getting Sri Lankan female rugby players to join Rugby clubs in Australia and give them some exposure to international Rugby During Minister Harin Fernando’s visit to Australia, he stared to have conversation with both Melbourne and Victoria Rugby officials, based on the main initiative of promoting Sri Lanka as an ideal travel destination and also as a sports tourism destination”, he said.

This is all about promoting Sri Lanka and about promoting sports tourism. All these initiatives are taken on the vision and leadership given by Ranil Wickremesinghe, President of Sri Lanka. Our main goal is to place Sri Lanka as a top level tourism destination across the world and also as a Sports Tourism Destination”. Harin Fernando, Minister of Tourism and Lands, was the driving force behind all these initiatives which was the positive output of several discussions on promoting sports and creating another opportunity to promote Tourism, along with Chalaka Gajabahu, Chairman, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau and Sandith Samarasinghe, Sri Lanka Consul General for Melbourne, during their visit to Australia for a promotional event.

The delegation from Australia arrived in Sri Lanka on the 17th of August 2023, including Baden Stephenson, CEO of Melbourne Rebels, Neil Hay. President of Rugby Victoria Nic Styles ex Wallabies player and coach, and General Manager of Melbourne Rebels.

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