Hoping for more tourists

In its latest update in July, Lonely Planet suggests that with the promise of “(hopefully) a more settled society’’, SL was back on the tourist map. The expectation in the tourism sector is that the end of the military campaign against the LTTE in May could encourage more tourists especially from European countries and India to visit SL, reports Sutirtho Patranobis.

In its latest update in July, Lonely Planet suggests that with the promise of “(hopefully) a more settled society’’, Sri Lanka was back on the tourist map.

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The expectation in the tourism sector is that the end of the military campaign against the LTTE in May could encourage more tourists especially from European countries and India to visit Sri Lanka.

But mere hopes and expectations add up to nothing.

For one, Sri Lanka’s re-launch of the tourism campaign had a false start. The Lankan government in all enthusiasm called the new campaign, “Sri Lanka — Small Miracle.” It turned out to be a bit of a dampener with a controversy breaking out over the use of the word ‘small’. Now, there is talk of issuing a new logo. Also, not much money apparently has been set aside to woo tourists with improved infrastructure as part of the new campaign.