Sri Lanka fears up to $1.5 billion tourism losses due to attack
Sri Lanka's Bomb Blast
Following the deadly attacks in Sri Lanka that claimed the lives of around 250 people, the country's finance minister on Friday feared a decline in its tourism.
Finance minister Mangala Samaraweera said on Friday that the country fears its lucrative tourism industry could decline by up to 30 per cent and incur losses of $1.5 billion this year.
"Tourism will be the worst affected. We expect a 30 per cent drop in arrivals and that means a loss of about $1.5 billion in foreign exchange", Samaraweera told reporters.
Samaraweera said the country could take up to two years to fully recover from Sunday's attacks, which devastated three luxury hotels and three Christian churches and killed 253 people killed, among them many foreigners.
"Typically, countries that suffer isolated IS-style attacks see tourism recovering within one-to-two years, as long as root causes are addressed and security measures taken are well communicated," the minister said.
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He pointed to Belgium, France, Spain and Tunisia as countries which recovered their tourism markets within a short time.
Samaraweera said tourism was emerging as Sri Lanka's success story when Sunday's blast shattered hopes of reaching a revenue of $5.0 billion, up from last year's $4.4 billion.
He said he was hoping to unveil a package of concessions to help the tourism sector overcomethe impact of the suicide bombings.
Most of the deluxe hotels in Colombo have stepped up security and curtailed bookings amid fears of more attacks.
Sri Lankan authorities on Thursday revised the toll from Easter bombings down to 253, from the previous figure of 359, explaining that some of the badly mutilated bodies had been double-counted.
Sri Lankan authorities have taken 76 people in custody in connection to their role in the attacks.
The authorities have released photographs of six suspects, including three women, wanted for their involvement in the deadly Easter attacks.
Police on Thursday released the names and pictures of the suspects and sought information regarding them from the public.
Nine suicide bombers, believed to be the members of a local terror group called National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ), carried out a series of devastating blasts that tore through three churches and three luxury hotels on Easter Sunday.
(With inputs from agencies)