Minister of Tourism, Prasanna Ranatunga says at a meeting of Indian bloggers.
Minister of Tourism, Prasanna Ranatunga says that attention is being paid to increase direct flights between India and Sri Lanka in the future. He emphasizes that this is being implemented with the aim of attracting more Indian tourists to the country.
He was speaking at a meeting with Indian bloggers in Sri Lanka on Friday (19). It is planned to bring 50 Indian bloggers to Sri Lanka to give wide publicity about Sri Lanka and its first batch has now arrived in the island. The first group includes 25 Indian bloggers. The group was on a recent visit to Yala, Kataragama and met Minister of Tourism, Prasanna Ranatunga at a friendly meeting at Cinnamon Lake in Colombo.
Minister of Tourism, Prasanna Ranatunga said that India is one of the top five tourism markets in Sri Lanka. He also pointed out that more than 18% of the tourists who arrived in the country in 2019 were Indians. With the reopening of Sri Lanka to tourists after the Covid pandemic, most of the tourists who have visited Sri Lanka so far have been Indians. As at 18th November, 85,655 tourists had arrived in Sri Lanka. Out of 24,567 tourists who arrived in the country from November 1 to 18, 8086 were Indians.
Prior to the Covid outbreak, SriLankan Airlines operated more than 100 flights a week to 11 major cities in India. He also said that the operation of plights to new destinations in India is also planned.
State Minister of Aviation and Export Zones Development, D.V .Chanaka and Chairman of SriLankan Airlines, Mr. Ashok Pathirage were also present at the occasion.
