Beauty Queen Laura Sri Lanka bound

BEAUTY queen Laura Gregory will show off her talents again in a new competition to promote Sri Lanka.

Laura is Ms England in the Miss Tourism Sri Lanka International pagaent next month.

Twenty ambassadors from across the globe will tour Sri Lanka to experience charity dinners, street parades, street food markets and cultural events before the final grand pagaent.

Organisers hope the event will promote Sri Lanka as a tourist destination and aim to make the beauty contest a regular event.

Laura (28), from Laughton en le Morthern, is already a former Miss Intercontinental England and last year was one of the five winners of Miss Scuba UK.

She is now preparing to travel to Sri Lanka for the first time from February 7 for two weeks.

She said: “This will be my first visit to Sri Lanka but I am already incredibly excited. Judging by the photographs I have seen it looks beautiful.

“I am also looking forward to meeting Joy Butler Markham, who has set up a charity to help the children left orphaned after the tsunami back in 2004, as well as working on helping people in need in 12 countries.

“The competition is new for this year and has been organised to draw international tourism to Sri Lanka by welcoming ambassadors from around the world to experience their culture, hospitality and beautiful surroundings.

“I heard about the competition from my good friend Holly Ikin, who is national director of many pageants including Miss International, Miss Intercontinental and Miss Galaxy to name a few, who contacted me to give me the opportunity to represent this country once again in an international pageant.

“I feel very privileged to be asked and so grateful that I get another chance to represent the country whilst exploring and learning about another country.

“I am a keen traveller. It is one of my ambitions to travel the world so I look forward to adding another country to my travel list.

“If I’m selected as the winner I will be an ambassador for tourism in Sri Lanka and win $10,000.”

Laura said that one place she hopes to visit in Sri Lanka is the Village of Dreams that was created to provide aid to tsunami victims.

Laura has also been selected to join performing dance group SDK Crew, which has shows lined up in Dinnington, Doncaster and London.

She has also been asked to model at the Liverpool Bridal Show.