Published on : Wednesday, May 1, 2019
President Sirisena acknowledged during his meeting on Monday with the country’s hoteliers that the tourism and hotel industries were worst hit after the string of powerful blasts ripped through three churches and as many luxury hotels on Easter Sunday, killing 253 people and injuring more than 500 others.
Sirisena requested Central Bank Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy to provide “maximum financial relief” immediately to the hoteliers, Sunday Times reported.
Hotels Association President Sanath Ukwatte said hoteliers had invested large sums of money in the development of the hotels and requested the government to provide a moratorium or waiver on the capital and interest for a period of at least two years.
President Sirisena agreed to appoint a Cabinet sub-committee to look into the requirements of the hoteliers, the report said.
The meeting was also attended by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Ministers, ministry officials and members of the industry.
The Easter Sunday blasts were the first time that tourists were specifically targeted.
Following the bombings, the US, Britain, Australia, India and Israel warned their nationals against visiting Sri Lanka.
In his first reaction to Sunday’s blasts, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said tourism industry will be hit by the blasts.
“There will be a downward trend, Tourism will get affected. There may be fund outflows,” Wickremesinghe said.
However, in the recent years the island nation has emerged as a top tourist destination in Asia.
Tourism accounts for about five per cent of Sri Lanka’s economy, with India, Britain and China being the main markets.
India is the largest source market for Sri Lanka, which received 2.3 million tourists from around the world in 2018. Around 450,000 Indian tourists visited Sri Lanka last year and the island nation was expecting the total Indian tourist arrivals to cross one million in 2019.