Govt targets 2.5m tourists by 2016

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

Many countries have identified Sri Lanka as one of the safest destinations after the cessation of terrorism in the country in May last year.

This is the most significant development in the country’s tourism industry due to the Government eradicating terrorism from Sri Lanka, Tourism Minister Achala Jagoda told the Sunday Observer.

After terrorism was eradicated several countries recognised Sri Lanka as the safest place for their citizens. The number of tourist arrivals recorded a significant increase this year, while tourists have shown a keen interest to travel to Sri Lanka.Therefore, the tourism industry will thrive in the coming years, he said.

“Recognising Sri Lanka as a safe place to travel clearly indicates the utmost confidence placed by the international community in Sri Lanka under the leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa,” he said.

The Minister said that several countries had lifted their travel advisories which had been imposed on Sri Lanka earlier advising their citizens not to travel to Sri Lanka due to the then prevailing security situation. More recently, the Government of Saudi Arabia also lifted its travel advisory which had been in force since 2008.

This has led to an increase in the number of Saudi Arabian tourists visiting Sri Lanka.Minister Jagoda said the Mahinda Chinthana Idiri Dekma has targeted 2.5 million tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka by 2016. With the rapid increase in the number of tourist arrivals, we could reach this target before 2016.

The Government as pledged in the Mahinda Chinthana has already taken several measures to assist those engaged in the tourism industry. A program has been drawn up to provide a maximum of Rs.100 million credit to medium-scale businessmen who engage in the hotel industry to renovate and construct new hotels and holiday resorts, he said.

The Tourism Ministry has decided to provide assistance to the private sector to construct 50,000 new hotel rooms to cater to the large number of tourists who are due to arrive in Sri Lanka in the coming years, he said.