Sri Lanka’s tourism industry has learnt, the hard way, that shouting does not rebuild confidence. Quiet competence does.
So when one of the country’s better operators makes a move into Australia and New Zealand, it does so without fireworks and with a clear-eyed understanding of how this market actually works.
Classic Destinations Pvt Ltd, a long-established destination management company based in Colombo, has appointed Alison Fleming as its trade representative for Australia and New Zealand. On paper, it is a modest announcement. In practice, it says rather more about where Sri Lanka believes its future visitors will come from and how it intends to win them.
Australia and New Zealand are not volume markets. They are value markets. They are also markets that remember disruption, political instability and half-kept promises. Re-entering them requires patience, credibility and someone who understands the trade well enough to know that relationships still matter.
Fleming brings more than two decades of experience working with wholesalers, agents and product managers across the region. Her role is not to sell Sri Lanka as an idea that argument has already been made, but to translate a complex destination into something bookable, reliable and, above all, repeatable.
Classic Destinations operates under two specialist brands: Classic Sri Lanka, which focuses on tailored cultural and experiential travel, and Classic Wild, a niche operator catering to serious wildlife photographers and birders. This is not mass-market tourism. Nor is it pretending to be.
The company is part of Expo Lanka Holdings, a diversified group with interests well beyond tourism. That backing matters. In destinations where infrastructure, logistics and political stability have been tested, scale and balance sheets count.
Classic Destinations has collected its share of trophies, including recognition at the World Travel Awards and the Sri Lanka Tourism Awards, but the more telling credential is that it remains the only Sri Lankan DMC certified by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council. Sustainability, in this context, is not a slogan. It is a gatekeeper for European and Australasian partners who increasingly demand proof rather than promises.
Deputy general manager Rajiv Welikala says the appointment reflects growing interest from the region rather than an opportunistic land grab.
“We are excited to be expanding our reach into the Australian and New Zealand markets with Alison. Her industry reputation, insights, and passion for high-quality travel perfectly align with our mission to showcase our award-winning experiences, world-class guiding, and seamless travel design and planning.”
Fleming is frank about what that actually means on the ground. Sri Lanka, she says, is no longer trying to compete with cheaper destinations. Nor should it.
“Classic Destinations’ first-hand knowledge, depth of expertise, and passion for authentic experiences are unparalleled. I look forward to working closely with the travel trade to help them deliver amazing, high-quality, and wherever possible, truly unique Sri Lankan and Maldives experiences to their clients.”
The Maldives pairing is deliberate. For long-haul travellers, contrast sells. Culture followed by collapse-into-a-lagoon remains an effective proposition.
What differentiates the product, Fleming argues, is not the hotels but the people in between.
“Our expert national guides are selected through a rigorous vetting process for their subject knowledge, storytelling ability, personality, and humour,” she said. “We also work with archaeologists, professional trekking guides, academically qualified wildlife experts, local chefs, artisans, craftsmen and master scuba divers.”
That is the difference between an itinerary and an experience, and the difference that agents in this market increasingly insist upon.
“We are moving away from mass tourism and cookie-cutter itineraries,” Fleming said. “Our aim is to present Sri Lanka in its most exclusive, authentic and culturally meaningful light.”
For Australia and New Zealand, this is not about rediscovering Sri Lanka. It is about deciding who does it properly.
More information is available at: https://www.classicsrilanka.com, https://www.classicwild.lk.
Trade contact: [email protected] | +61 494 128 349.
by Anne Keam – (c) 2026.
Read time: 3 minutes.
About the Writer.
Anne Keam’s story begins in Queensland, on a grain farm in the state’s wide western reaches, where the days were long and the lessons simple: work hard, look after your own, and don’t make a fuss. Those early years left their mark.
She later studied Arts at the University of Queensland, before doing what felt natural at the time, heading back home to the family property. But the world was calling. Anne packed a backpack and went looking, spending years on the road and finding herself most alive in South America. She wrote everything down along the way. Those notebooks, full of dust, colour and curiosity, eventually became her blog, a quiet, personal record of seeing the world and learning from it.
