Tuesday Oct 28, 2025
Tuesday Oct 28, 2025
Tuesday, 28 October 2025 00:28 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) yesterday said it has approved a $ 100 million financing package to support Sri Lanka’s tourism sector with strategic policy reforms and targeted catalytic investments, which align with the country’s National Tourism Policy.
The funding for the Sustainable Tourism Sector Development Program consists of a concessional loan of $ 70 million and a regular loan of $ 30 million from ADB.
The program will help diversify the sector by promoting untapped tourism areas including marine tourism, opening up new destinations, increasing tourist stay and spend, and creating an enabling environment for increased women’s participation in the sector.
It will also will support policy and institutional reforms across multiple areas of the sector including governance, asset management, tourism promotion and marketing, skills improvement and digitalisation, and sustainable tourism and urban development in two major tourism destinations, namely Dambulla (including Sigiriya) and Trincomalee.
The project will support sector governance improvements; enhance private sector participation and boost tourist arrivals and foreign exchange earnings; and address the infrastructure gap, while strengthening product development and high-end destination marketing, the ADB said in a statement.
ADB Sri Lanka Country Director Takafumi Kadono said: “Although Sri Lanka’s tourist arrivals in 2025 returned to 2018 levels, earnings have remained below pre-pandemic figures. Through appropriate policy and institutional reforms, infrastructure enhancements, and improved sector resilience against internal and external shocks, tourism can become the engine of inclusive economic growth.”
