By Hiran H.Senewiratne

‘2023 would be one of the best recovery years for Sri Lanka and tourism will support rebuilding the economy. Aggressively promoting Indian tourism into Sri Lanka will serve that purpose to some extent, Minister of Tourism Harin Fernando said.

“Sri Lanka is looking to its big brother India to support in these ambitious endeavours to help Sri Lankans to save their smiles. Plans are underway to promote Sri Lankan tourism in all big cities in India including Kochi, Chennai and Bengaluru next year, Fernando said last week at the press conference announcing the launch of SiHiTa Cultural Fest 2022 at the Hilton Colombo. The event was organized by the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, Ministry of Tourism and Lands and the Indian High Commission in Colombo. The festival will take place at the Sugathadasa Stadium, Colombo on December 30.

Fernando added: “Sri Lanka needs to stand out, we need tourism. And this Christamas Sri Lanka is going to show the world ‘Sri Lanka Can’ .We are a resilient nation and we always come out of troubles.”

Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, Chairman Chalaka Gajabahu said: “We would like to continue this engagement in the future as this would help in terms of clearing Sri Lanka’s image and boosting the Sri Lankan tourism industry in a big way.”

Tourism sector sources added: “SiHiTa is a unique event in which India and Sri Lanka will join hands together to embark on a journey to promote tourism and to attract international markets towards the South Asian region. SiHiTa would also be an ideal platform to create much needed links between the two countries in the economic, cultural and social spheres. The festival will include a wide range of aspects, such as, Indian and Sri Lankan culture, music, travel, food, cinema, dance, fashion and hospitality.”

The event will see multiple award winning Indian artiste Srinivas performing along with well known, young Sri Lankan artistes. Proceeds from the event will be forwarded to the “Educate a Child” project.

Another long -term goal of this project is to build and maintain care centres for autism and Down syndrome children in all nine provinces. Organizers of this event are hopeful that this event would open doors for Indian tourists to experience Sri Lankan hospitality in a big way. Organizers of SiHiTa expect some 5,000 participants from both countries and plans are underway to operate special charter flights and other scheduled airlines from both India and Sri Lanka to bring down Indian fans.