Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga

• Ministries of Tourism, Foreign Affairs, Wildlife, Trade, Archaeology and National Heritage to make collective effort
• Officials of foreign missions, Department of Commerce point to stringent health protocols hindering inflow of more tourists
• Tourism Minister says matter being discussed with Health Ministry
• Trade Minister opines SL could successfully face foreign exchange crisis by boosting tourism industry
• WHO approved Sinopharm not included among qualifying vaccines

The Government is preparing an inter-ministry joint program to attract more tourists to Sri Lanka.

This special initiative is to be implemented jointly by the Ministries of Tourism, Foreign Affairs, Wildlife, Trade, Archaeology and National Heritage and their affiliates.

Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said that the objective of the collective initiative was to effectively promote Sri Lanka as an attractive tourist destination among international travellers.

He made these remarks at a special discussion on the steps to be taken to make Sri Lanka an attractive tourist destination with members of the Foreign Missions and representatives of the Department of Commerce (DoC) this week.

The members of the foreign missions and commercial officials pointed out that stringent and outdated health protocols were an issue to attract tourists, adding that most of the competing tourism destinations have eased rules.

Minister Ranatunga said that the matter had been taken up with the Health Ministry and it would be addressed in the immediate future.

He also emphasised the need to promote Sri Lanka as a holistic tourism destination instead of promoting services and tourist hotspots separately. He expressed the hope that this strategy would be more attractive to travellers.

In addition, he said the Tourism Ministry had paid special attention to providing the necessary background scenes for the film industry, to hold foreign weddings in Sri Lanka and to uplift MICE tourism opportunities in the country.

Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardena said that the country could successfully face the foreign exchange crisis by attracting tourists if it acted with maximum efficiency in addition to the duties assigned to it in a nationally difficult situation.

He also said that the local Ayurvedic medical system, sceneries for the film industry, and manufacturing organic products, as well as the production capacity of local products, would be increased and if proper awareness could be created to attract tourists easily.

Gunawardena also instructed the commercial officers at the embassies to discuss with the ambassadors of the various countries and regulations on the laws and regulations currently in place in various countries and to make them aware of the health practices and safety of tourists in Sri Lanka.

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