Tourism Minister Harin Fernando has met the diplomatic community in an attempt to urge their respective countries to lift the travel restrictions currently imposed in visiting Sri Lanka.
Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka have dropped significantly due to the current situation in the country. Many countries have imposed travel restrictions discouraging their citizens from visiting Sri Lanka.
“Met with the Diplomatic community in Colombo to discuss about reviving tourism in Sri Lanka. We made a request to lift the travel bans/restrictions currently imposed by several countries” New Tourism Minister Harin Fernando tweeted.
The meeting has been organised by Sri Lanka tourism advisory committee chairman, Hiran Cooray.
Meanwhile, speaking during a TV show Minister Fernando said that he is considering appointing Sri Lankan Airlines chairman to head tourism as well, so that both entities can share the cost and do promotions together.
“It’s an effective way to do combine promotions around the world, it will also cut costs. We can use Sri Lankan Airlines offices around the world for tourism promotion” Minister said.
Sri Lankan Airlines currently is headed by Businessman Ashok Pathirage.