SRI Lanka is looking to take a leaf from Singapore on developing its tourism sector, especially the niche in business events.

A delegation of tourism officials from the South Asian island - freshly out of over two decades of civil war - have met major tourism players here this week, intent on using industry practices here as benchmarks.

Mr Bernard Goonetilleke, who chairs the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority and Tourism Promotion Bureau, said: 'Singapore is dynamic and progressive, and we thought it would be a good thing to learn from the industry leader in the region.

'Sri Lanka has stood still for over a quarter of a century while Singapore has moved forward. We wanted to find out what it's done during this period.'

The conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the separatist rebel army of the Tamil Tigers has largely been to blame for slowing its once-prosperous tourism industry. Visitor arrivals there have stagnated at 500,000 a year since 1983.

The Sri Lankan government wants this to change. It has declared 2011 as 'Visit Sri Lanka Year' and has its eye on growing visitor arrivals five fold to 2.5 million by 2016.

It hopes to achieve this with Singapore's help - and possibly even investments.