• Says daily visitors dropped from 5,000 to 1,000 at present 
• Claims agitation is pushing economy to abyss

Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga yesterday called on the activists to be realistic and support the country to overcome multiple crises.

“The number of daily visitors were between 4,000 and 5,000 but by now it has dwindled to 1,000 at present. If there is a genuine desire to solve the country’s economic crisis, the rebels should not act in a way to obstruct the avenues of inflows. The protests cannot not solve the country’s economic crisis and would only exacerbate the economic crisis. Therefore, I urge the activists to be realistic and rather come up with solutions to overcome the multiple crises,” the Minister said yesterday.

Ranatunga also said the process of changing the Government of the country should be constitutional, noting that agitating or forcing the incumbent President to resign from the Government led by the Prime Minister by engaging in violent activities.  “It is not a solution to these multiple problems, but rather putting the country further into the abyss,” he added.

 “The tourism industry needs to be strengthened to address the current economic crisis. We need to attract more tourists so that it generates more foreign exchange. Tourists come to a destination only if the country is peaceful and secure. Sadly, tourist arrivals are declining and it is due to the unrest in the country,” he said.

Till the end of the war in 2009, tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka were bare minimal. Thereafter, the country received the highest tourist arrivals of 2.3 million in 2018, but that upward trend could not be maintained with the Easter Sunday attacks in 2019 and COVID-19 the following year. However, Sri Lanka attracted 194,500 tourists in post-pandemic last year and the arrivals picked-up this year especially, with March recording over 100,000 arrivals in March after two years. 

Tourism earnings top $ 500 mark in 1Q