“This is the way forward,” Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said.

Sri Lanka’s tourist arrivals rose 19.8 perecnt over 2013 to 1,527,153 in 2014. Arrivals rose 18 percent from a year earlier to 157,051 in March 2015, with Western European arrivals recovering after a lull during election in the island and China performing strongly, official data shows.

Total arrivals were up 13.6 percent from a year earlier to 478,838 in the first three months of the year.

(LBO)