The New york Times reveals "The 31 Places to go in 2010" - January 10, 2010
22nd September 2009….. The UK travel advisory to Sri Lanka has been further relaxed this week. The Minister of Tourism Promotion Hon Faiszer Musthapha met with the British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Dr Peter Hayes last week to discuss the further relaxing the travel advisory. Commenting on this new development the Hon Minister said, “This is indeed a significant step forward for Sri Lanka tourism’s future. Post-conflict
, Sri Lanka & the tourism industry in particular, is rapidly moving ahead positively. We are all geared up embrace the evolution and look forward to further support from the international community.”
The British Acting High Commissioner, Mark Gooding commented, “We have relaxed our advice such that we are now informing travellers that there is now a general (as opposed to high) threat from terrorism which means that there is some level of known terrorist activity in-country.”
This comes in the wake of a continuous increase of inbound tourism figures after the successful defeat of tourism in the island. Tourist arrivals jumped nearly 35% with UK market registering nearly 17 percent increase when compared to the period in 2008. The UK has traditionally been a stronghold for Sri Lanka in terms of inbound tourism.
The travel advisory was first relaxed in July this year, when it was amended to stop discouraging
British tourists from travelling to Yala National Park, Arugam Bay & Trincomalee. Commenting at that time the British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Dr Peter Hayes said, “We’ve taken this decision based on our assessment of the improving security situation in these parts of Sri Lanka.”
Tourist arrivals from European markets have also recorded a marked increase for the month of August. France went up by nearly 109 percent, Germany up by 71 percent and Switzerland nearly 91 percent. The Middle Eastern and Indian markets registered 28 and 51 percent increases respectively. -Ends-For more information please
