Sri Lanka's President agrees to financial relief to hoteliers

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Monday agreed to provide the maximum possible financial relief immediately to hoteliers in the aftermath of the blasts that rocked Colombo targeting three luxury hotels on Easter Sunday (April 21), in a bid to resurrect the once-flourishing tourism industry.

By Sunimalee Dias

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Monday agreed to provide the maximum possible financial relief immediately to hoteliers in the aftermath of the blasts that rocked Colombo targeting three luxury hotels on Easter Sunday (April 21), in a bid to resurrect the once-flourishing tourism industry.

During the morning meeting with mainly hoteliers and a few others from the industry, the President had acknowledged that tourism and hotel industry had been the worst hit sector of the economy and requested Central Bank Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy to provide maximum relief.

Hoteliers have invested large sums of money in the development of the hotels and in this respect, Hotels Association President Sanath Ukwatte told Times Online that they requested the government to provide a moratorium or waiver on the capital and interest for a period of at least two years and the provision of soft loans to rebuild on the working capital requirements mainly for the SME sector of the industry.

During the meeting hoteliers had also wanted the government to ensure there would be a professional PR and communications unit to send one message to the world and subsequently obtain and the services of a PR company.

President Sirisena agreed to appoint a cabinet sub-committee to look into the requirements of the hoteliers and immediately implement them.

The meeting was also attended by the Prime Minister, Ministers, government ministry officials and members of the industry. – ENDS -