The government of Sri Lanka has unveiled plans to attract more visitors to the country, after declaring 2011 "Visit Sri Lanka Year", which is designed to help meet a target of 2.5 million tourists by 2016.
According to Sri Lankan President H.E. Mahinda Rajapakse, the country will look to promote its natural, historic and cultural assets to help boost a tourism industry that had previously suffered due to the threat of internal terrorism.
Hambantota, Kalpitiya and Arugam Bay have been developed as new tourist resorts, while Passikudah and Trincomalee, up to the Kokilai Lagoon in the eastern part of the country will look to attract more inbound visitors.
Rajapakse said: "With terrorism defeated after three decades, we can now fully use the assets of nature, history and culture for tourism to restore its contribution to development.
"Tourism must move to new opportunities with the people as its partners. The tourism industry has a major role as custodians of our environment, assets of nature and traditions of people."
