Love Sri Lanka

Many countries like Sri Lanka rely on tourism – without it jobs disappear, local people do not get paid.

Zurab Pololikashvili, the Secretary General of the United Nation’s World Tourism Organization has called “on the global community to offer its unwavering support to Sri Lanka through Tourism at this critical moment noting that hotels, beaches and other sites of interests are open as usual and ready to welcome you and by continuing to offer our support through tourism, we can help Sri Lanka recover and continue on its path towards peace and prosperity”.

Shortly after the attacks, Sri Lankans celebrated a very peaceful Vesak Festival, commemorating the birth of Lord Buddha, his attaining enlightenment and his demise.
People of all religions observed this significant event of the Buddhist Calendar throughout the island.

Since the attacks in Sri Lanka, tourism professionals in Sri Lanka have set up a new online platform – Sri Lanka Tourism Alliance, with the tagline ‘Love Sri Lanka’ – to promote and support travel to Sri Lanka. This is a wonderful resource to access information, advice and status reports from credible sources on the ground in Sri Lanka.

Lyn Taylor of Incredible India is one of the people who lead tours to Sri Lanka, and she is joining others in calling us to #lovesrilanka, She writes:

Foreign tourists, including plenty of Australians are returning to Sri Lanka and a central task force has been appointed to work with foreign ministries of all the countries that have issued advisories to their citizens. The government is aggressively demonstrating that the situation in the country is completely under control and that security/safety is a number one priority. We hope to see tangible progress on softening and completely lifting these advisories very soon.

According to reports on the ground from travellers and tourists in Sri Lanka, the country is now ‘safer than ever’ and currently a lot quieter, so now is a perfect time to visit to access Sri Lanka’s World Heritage sites, beaches, wildlife parks, tea plantations and hills when they are quieter and less over-run with tourists. With nearly half a million Sri Lankans relying on tourism for their livelihood, it is more important than ever to visit Sri Lanka sooner rather than later.