Since airport reopening 3,800 tourists have arrived

Since the reopening of the airports on January 21 more than 3,800 tourists had arrived in the country, Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said. Most of them had arrived from Ukraine (1,374.) followed by 526 from Kazakstan and 443 from India, he said.

Ranatunga said that five airlines had also agreed to commence direct flights with Sri Lanka. They are Fly Dubai, SalamAir, Jazeera Air, Gulf Air and Air Arabia.

“Three of these companies, Fly Dubai, SalamAir and Air Arabia, have commenced operations to Sri Lanka already. We will start direct flights through other companies as well. These flights will take place through BIA and Mattala,” he said.

The Minister said that they had programmes to ensure that tourists were not inconvenienced in any way. He also instructed officers to ensure that the tourists and Sri Lankans didn’t mingle.

“We also need to start a global marketing campaign to attract tourists here. We must highlight that Sri Lanka is a COVID-19 safe country as well,” the Minister said.