Sri Lanka aims to be next best tourist destination in Asia: PM

Sept 27, 2017 (LBO) - Sri Lanka is looking at becoming the most sought after tourist destination in Asia as the focus of tourism shifts from other regions, Prime Minister Ranil  Wickremesinghe said. "We are looking at attracting five million tourists by 2025 and for this we need to become a 365 day 24 hour destination,” Wickremesinghe said at the second biennial Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts Future of Tourism Conference in Colombo yesterday. "The future of tourism will be in Asia and in this outlook one of the best destinations will be Sri Lanka.” The conference was attended by global travel experts and experts from the local leisure and hospitality industry. The Minister of Tourism also said that the tourism sector will be boosted with the launch of the Vision 2025 which will declare  2020 to be the "Visit Sri Lanka" year. "Vision 2025 will provide a strategic direction for the Government, industry and all stakeholders and bring them together through what is known as rooted philosophy," A 10-point action plan to kick-start the destination marketing program has now been finalised under the guidance of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the tourism taskforce, he added. He said the conference was an opportunity for Sri Lanka to get a feel of the global trends and how it affect us and how to tackle them. Tourist arrivals to the island saw a rise of 2.5 percent in August while arrivals up to August rose 3.5 percent to 1.406 million, data from the state tourism office said.