East tourism to flourish - Musthapa

Shanika Sriyananda reporting from Trincomalee

Deputy Minister of Tourism Faizer Musthapa invited local tourists to travel more to the Eastern Province as the region is now safe with hardly any threat from the LTTE.

Deputy Minister Musthapa along with the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan held a media conference in Trincomalee on Friday to elaborate on the situation with regard to tourism in the country.

Several tour operators and media personnel were present at the briefing where the Deputy Minister was highly optimistic of reviving tourism in the East.

He said: Tourism could be a major revenue earner to develop the Eastern region, which was devastated due to LTTE terrorism. Local tourists could travel to the East without any fear.

The region has tremendous resources to develop tourism into international standards.

"Tourism is the forth income generating sector in the country. Once the LTTE is completely eradicated from the country tourism in the East will flourish" he said. The Chief Minister Chandrakanthan said: The Eastern province is historically, and culturally rich and resources to develop tourism are found in abundance.

Investors and tour operators should focus more on the East to attract local an foreign tourists.

He also said that the income generated from tourist to the region could be used for development activities.