President calls for collective effort to revive tourism sector

• Asserts need to formulate new approaches to lure international visitors

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday called on for a collective effort to revive hard-hit tourism and asserted the need to formulate new approaches to lure international visitors to the country.

In a discussion with the Tourism Ministry officials, Rajapaksa said tourism needs to be rapidly uplifted, as it is an important sector that affects the national economy as well as the job security of a large number of people. 

He made the remarks at a progress review meeting of the Tourism Ministry held at the President’s House, Fort, yesterday.

The president emphasised the importance of correcting misinformation about the country by Sri Lankan missions overseas. 

Meanwhile, to ensure operations carried out in an uninterrupted manner, he instructed the relevant officials to address the fuel problem faced by the people engaged in the tourism industry.   Brought to the attention of the president by the tourism officials is the gas shortage faced by the large, medium and small-scale hoteliers, which needs to be addressed immediately.

The prospects of pitching Sri Lanka as a destination for shooting films were discussed as well.

Over four million people are directly and indirectly involved in the tourism industry. Crippled by the Easter attacks and COVID-19 epidemic the industry was on the edge of recovery but continues to be hit from repeated episodes of crisis.