The Sri Lankan Tourism industry will have to live with the negative effects of the coronavirus for around four months former Minister of Tourism, John Amaratunge said.
Speaking to Daily News Finance he said that the unpleasant patterns of the Coronaviruses evident in all other countries are repeating in Sri Lanka as well. “Sri Lanka Tourism is resilient and has faced bigger issues and will recover.”
The Minister said that the government will have to come out with another relief package to look after the interests of the leisure sector stakeholders not only at company level, but at Micro level as well. This will have to be announced soon.
Amaratunge said it’s unfortunate that when even Sri Lankan Tourism recovers and reaches the ‘top’ some natural (tsunami, floods) or manmade disasters (30 year war, election violence, JVP uprisings, ethnic issues and Easter bombs) hits the market where the industry had to take a nose dive.
However, unlike in the previous issues like SARS, the world never cancelled global travel shows like ITB in Berlin, China and Indian and the ATM in Dubai. “Hence this will also curtail Sri Lanka’s destination marketing initiatives.”
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