World News | Sri Lanka Mulls Reopening Airports from August 1 to Boost Tourism: Official
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. Sri Lanka is mulling the idea of making operational the country's airports from August 1 to welcome back the tourists and boost the tourism sector that has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, a senior government official said on Tuesday.
Colombo, May 26 (PTI) Sri Lanka is mulling the idea of making operational the country's airports from August 1 to welcome back the tourists and boost the tourism sector that has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, a senior government official said on Tuesday.
Sri Lanka has reported 1,278 cases of coronavirus with 96 new infections detected on Tuesday. The country has so far witnessed 10 deaths.
A task force constituted by President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa to combat COVID-19 in the island nation has said that not a single case of coronavirus has been witnessed in the country through community spread since April 30, indicating it as a sign for the country to return to normalcy.
The task force therefore had further proposed that airports can be reopened for foreign tourists from August 1, a senior official said.
Though there have been no hike in cases due to community spread of the disease yet Sri Lanka on Monday said that since Sunday, 56 Sri Lankan returnees from Kuwait have been found to be positive of coronavirus, basically indicating the surge in cases were mostly imported ones.
Tourism accounts for about five per cent of the economy, with Britain, India and China the main markets.
The number of international tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka declined in March 2020 by 70.8 per cent in comparison to a year ago as the tourism industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak.
The tourism sector of Sri Lanka has been in bad shape since last year when the country was jolted by the Easter Sunday attacks, which killed over 250 people including Indians.
Sri Lanka, which had imposed a lockdown for months due to the coronavirus situation, on Tuesday marked the first day since the capital district of Colombo was not under a Curfew since March 20.
Also, the curfew will remain only in the night time until further notice, police said.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)