India says pilgrim traffic, tourism a boon for economic revival in Sri Lanka

India has urged Sri Lanka to invest in attracting the pilgrim traffic from India in a bid to generate a higher number of arrivals to the country as tourism will bring about economic revival and improve livelihoods of the people as well.

Indian High Commissioner Gopal Baglay said in Colombo on Wednesday that Sri Lanka needs to focus its efforts on not just attracting the leisure traveller but also the large numbers of thousands of pilgrim traffic that continue to look to the island to complete their religious obligations.

He was speaking at the launch of the new marketing campaign by the Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO) and Tourism Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) together with Dentsu Grant Group on the theme “And you thought you knew Sri Lanka” to entice the Indian travellers to visit Sri Lanka’s hidden gems.

He noted that India has been supportive of Sri Lanka since the COVID-19 times and in the last few months as well. In this respect he said that India’s cooperation in tourism is geared to benefit the people of the two countries.

Mr. Baglay also said that Sri Lanka needs to look to India’s progress in terms of speed and scale of change that is happening all over the subcontinent.

He noted that out of three new subscribers to the Internet two are from the villages; and India does not live only in its middle class.

“The pandemic propelled us forward and not backward,” he said. (SD)