Govt. positive on tourism recovery within 10 months

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told a gathering of tourism industry stakeholders on Tuesday that the government hopes the tourism industry could recover from this setback within a period of about 10 months.

Hotels were asked to increase their security by using scanning machines and Mr. Wickremesinghe said that the moratorium for loans and other financial relief were agreed upon and a few officials from the tourism sector associations were asked to get in touch with the Central Bank and Finance Ministry to work out details.

Discussions also centred on the recovery plan and promotions that authorities hope to kick off by end May. The promotions and the recovery plan have been outlined by the PR company JWT but this is yet to obtain cabinet approval. More than 250 people including 40 tourists died in Easter Sunday bombings by Muslim extremist suicide bombers that has led to a flood of cancellations of holidays by tourists, amidst travel warnings by several countries. (Sunimalee)