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Saturday Dec 14, 2024
Monday, 10 February 2020 00:55 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Charumini de Silva
The Government is planning to sign a string of bilateral agreements with a number of countries including China, Pakistan, Iraq and South Africa to channel tourists to the crisis-hit sector, a top official said.
Cabinet has granted approval to sign the bilateral agreements with China, Pakistan, Estonia and Iraq to promote tourism. In addition, the Government expects to enter into bilateral agreements with several other countries such as South Africa and Georgia.
However, Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said the signing of the MoUs could be delayed for some time due to the outbreak of the new coronavirus in China which has caused problems for the global travel industry.
“Escalation of the coronavirus crisis could pose a negative impact on the tourism industry. But we are optimistic of signing these agreements as soon as the tourism industry in the world recovers,” he told the Daily FT.
The Minister pointed out that such agreements would benefit Sri Lanka as well as other countries in the event disasters hit the world.
Sri Lanka has signed MoUs for tourism promotion with 10 countries – India, Thailand, Seychelles, Poland, Tajikistan, Malaysia, Australia, Russia, South Korea and the Philippines.
Accordingly, the implementation of the programs will be coordinated through a Joint Working Group.
He said that many developed countries offer to help small countries that are in agreement with them in the event of such global situations and such agreements are very important for Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka’s top tourist markets include India, the UK, China, Australia, Germany, US, Maldives, France and Canada.
He said the Government also intended to appoint destination marketing agencies based in Europe, China, India, the Middle East and Russia and Ukraine.
The Government hopes to promote Sri Lanka as the world’s number one tourist destination.
Ranatunga also said that they hoped to implement the promotional campaigns proposed by the Sri Lankan embassies abroad.
