Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said, despite Covid pandemic, the tourism industry in Sri Lanka has earned US$ 130 million from January to October.
Since the opening of the country to tourists, more than 70,000 tourists have arrived up to date, he said.
The Minister expressed these views while speaking at a meeting between French travel agencies and journalists at the Shangri-La Hotel in Paris on Tuesday.
The minister said they are expecting nearly 200,000 tourists would visit Sri Lanka in the near future and expressed confidence that Sri Lanka’s tourism industry would recover next year, adding that Sri Lanka was ready to welcome tourists from all over the world.
Minister Ranatunga said the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority has implemented various programmes in the recent past to attract tourists, especially from France, and instructed them to expand such tourism promotion activities in France in the future.
Meanwhile, he said that the Covid booster vaccine is expected to be given to those engaged in the tourism and aviation sector before the end of this month.
” As at November 8, 71% of the total population of the country have received at least one jab and 63% of the total population has so far received both the doses till now,” he said. (Daily Mirror)
Source: http://www.travelvoice.lk/tourism-industry-nets-us-130mn-revenue-in-first-10-months/
