Tourism Minister links negative travel advisories to 9 July protest rumours

Thursday, 7 July 2022 00:23 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Tourism Minister Harin Fernando yesterday explained that the negative travel advisories could be due to the rumours of a massive protest against the Government scheduled for 9 July.

He made these remarks in response to a journalist’s query on Britain’s Foreign Office’s warning against travel to Sri Lanka on Tuesday.

The UK advised against all but essential travel to Sri Lanka due to the impact of the country’s economic crisis.

“Sri Lanka is experiencing a severe economic crisis which has led to shortages of basic necessities including medicines, cooking gas, fuel and food,” the British Government said.

Separately, France also changed its travel advisory from reconsidering non-essential travel to the recommendation to exercise caution and to travel with tour operators.

Noting that the travel advisories are updated weekly, Fernando expressed hope in the UK revising it in favour of travel to Sri Lanka. He also pointed out that these are two different ways of looking at Sri Lanka and was hopeful of a positive outlook soon.

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