Leaving all the recent unrest and uncertainty (which attracted a lot of attention from world across) behind, the latest updates given by none other than the Minister of Tourism and Lands, Government of Sri Lanka, Harin Fernando, suggest that Sri Lanka is back to normalcy as the things have started picking up and the country is ready to receive international travellers in a real good atmosphere.
In order to spread the message across the Indian travel fraternity that tourists are welcomed without any obstacle, and to engage in new tie-ups with airlines and tourism service providers while promoting tourism, the minister along with a delegation is on a visit to New Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad.
While interacting with the media in New Delhi, Harin Fernando informed, “Earlier there was a lot of negative news that people in Sri Lanka don’t have food, fuel and electricity, which is absolutely not true at present.”
“In fact the country is recovering fast and aiming to achieve a remarkable growth in the tourism sector in the year 2023 which will be a dream year for the country. India is the top source market for tourism and Sri Lanka has a target of attracting one million tourists by December this year,” added Fernando.
The Minister informed that the Government is considering measures such as tying up with Indian airline companies such as Air India and Indigo Airlines to market special tourism packages for the destination Sri Lanka, besides incentives such as offering insurance for incoming Indian travellers. Well renowned travel company – MakeMyTrip, and Mastercard have already agreed to market Sri Lanka tourism
While sharing the latest figures of tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka Fernando said, “For the period January to August 2022, around 80,000 tourists came from India followed by the UK with 65,000 tourist arrivals for the same period.
Country’s tourism revenue has been close to USD 900 million which is expected to reach USD 2 billion for the year.” 2018 has been the best year when around 23 lakhs tourists visited the country with revenue of USD 5 billion.
While elaborating on the preparedness of attracting a huge number of travellers from India and world across he further informed, “We have massive shows planned for December 31st and we will show the world that Sri Lanka is back on its feet. We are speaking to iconic Indian stars and musicians and inviting them to visit our country. Visitors will be amazed to a very different Sri Lanka in December this year.”
In order to reposition Sri Lanka strongly in international tourism markets the country has big plans to participate in leading global tourism fairs such as WTM and ITB. Apart from that Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) is planning to launch a marketing campaign to showcase to the world that the island nation is ready to welcome tourists again in a secure environment.
Over 50 local travel agencies and hotels participated at the event with the delegation being led by the Harin Fernando, Minister of Tourism accompanied by Chalaka Gajabahu, Chairman Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau and Thisum Jayasuriya, Chairman Sri Lanka Conventions Bureau. Many industry stakeholders have supported this endeavour including SriLankan Airlines and Mastercard.
