With the significant improvement of the security situation in the country, the Germany has decided further relax its travel advisory from this month, German Ambassador Jens Plotner told the Sunday Observer.
“ Tourists to Sri Lanka is increasing rapidly and the country is becoming a popular destination due to its beauty. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has put up a very ambitious goal to bring down over 2.5 million tourists by 2016. I myself has witnessed all the economic activities are in high gear to meet this target”, he said.
According to Ambassador Plotner, the only area which the Germany was not yet recommend its tourists to travel to is the North as the foreigners were still not allowed to travel to Jaffna.
“ I hope it will be dropped in the near future. Once the state of emergency is abolished, we will reach a situation where we will have no specific travel advisory at all”, he said.
Plotner said Sri Lanka was popular as a destination close to the nature and the country has a potential to develop as one of the best eco-friendly tourists destination and also as a best country for Ayurveda treatment.
“Many come to Sri Lanka for Ayurveda treatment. This is another sector where Sri Lanka has an advantage to make the country popular among the tourists. This sector needs to be developed more”, he said.
German government is planning to spend nearly US $ 15 million for the country’s development activities, including the de-mining and poverty alleviation programs in the North and East.