Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka eyeing 7 million tourists by 2025
Colombo/Xinhua: Sri Lanka's new government has set a target of attracting seven million tourists annually to the island country by 2025 and earn 10 billion U.S. dollars in revenue from the tourism industry, Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said here Tuesday.
He was quoted by local media reports as saying that the government has already begun working to achieve this target and will strengthen the sector despite that it is among the worst hit by the global COVID-19 pandemic.
The minister said he had submitted a memorandum to the cabinet of ministers, which would provide relief to the tourism sector.
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, authorities closed the country's international airports in March to prevent the spread of the virus, which has to date infected over 3,300 people in the country.
Authorities said it will consider re-opening the airports only after completion of the repatriation process and the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic is brought completely under control.
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