Plagued by politically made socio-economic crisis and the recent diplomatic dispute with Russia over Aeroflot issue Sri Lanka’s tourism Ministry had just started looking up at damage control by opening the island for Indian film industry to attract more tourists from the closest neighbour.
New plan will be implemented to promote Sri Lanka as destination with beautiful scenery , availability of sophisticated infrastructure facilities and concessions for shooting international films specially Indian films.
Newly appointed Tourism Minister Harin Fernando has reached out to Bollywood to help boost tourism in Sri Lanka.
The Minister tweeted saying he met with Bollywood actors Chitrangda Singh and Dino Morea in Colombo on Sunday 05 and discussed ways and means of promoting Sri Lankan tourism in India.
He also discussed promoting Sri Lanka as a location to shoot Indian movies.Expressing his views, Dino Morea said that Sri Lanka is one of the most beautiful countries he has visited.
He said that even today nothing has changed and Sri Lanka continues to be a beautiful country and the people continue to be friendly.
The actor said that what is portrayed outside about Sri Lanka today is not the bigger picture and so people should visit the country.
Chitrangda Singh said that Sri Lanka is a naturally beautiful country.She also noted that Sri Lanka is safe to visit and that some information is blown out of proportion.
Sri Lanka tourism arrivals dipped 40 percent in April resulting in the lowest number of arrivals in the last three months of 2022, official data showed.
According to data shared by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA,) only 62,980 tourists had arrived in April compared to 106,500 the previous month.
The top source market for tourists in April was the UK, India, and Germany. Countries such as the UK, New Zealand and Canada have also issued travel advisories to their citizens over Sri Lanka’s crisis.
Although the Sri Lankan tourism sector is now struggling due to socio economic crisis and the recent misunderstanding with with Russia, the tourism ministry is taking every possible step to to revive the industry by introducing innovative promotional campaigns.
These promotional campaigns will be implemented under the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority Chairmanship of Priyantha Fernando at the Tourism Promotion Bureau.
In a desperate attempt to mend fences with Russia, Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has informed Russia through the Foreign Ministry that the issue over the Aeroflot passenger aircraft is not between the two countries but is a private legal issue.
The Premier further assures that Sri Lanka’s Minister of Justice has been informed to expedite the process of the court case.
He has reportedly directed the Foreign Secretary to speak to the Russian Foreign Ministry and explain the matter, and to further clarify that the enjoining order had nothing to do with the Sri Lankan government.
Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had issued a statement on Saturday with reference to the detention of Aeroflot passenger aircraft flight SU-289, which has somewhat escalated into a diplomatic row now.
On 2 June 2022, the Commercial High Court of the Western Province issued an Enjoining Order on the Aeroflot flight restraining it from taking off from Bandaranaike International Airport, the tourism ministry said.
