SRI LANKA – To promote tourism, the government of Sri Lanka will be entering Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with Iraq, Pakistan, China and Estonia, though the signing of contracts could be delayed due to the ongoing coronavirus virus spread globally.
There are also future plans to do the same with South Africa and Georgia.
Sri Lanka currently has 10 MoUs inked with Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, India, Thailand, Seychelles, Australia, Poland, Russia and Tajikistan.
According to the Ministry of Tourism and Aviation, such agreements could mean developed countries offering financial support to smaller countries like Sri Lanka during times of crisis.
In 2019, Sri Lanka received the largest arrivals in numbers from China, Australia, India, Maldives, United Kingdom, and France.
Moving forward, the government will be working towards pushing Sri Lanka as one of the world’s leading tourism destinations – where plans are being made to appoint destination marketing representatives as well as marketing agencies in countries showing high tourism potential such as India, Middle East, Ukraine, Russia and top tourist attracting European countries.