Sri Lanka has admitted that the issuing of several travel warnings advising tourists to avoid the Eastern hotspot of Arugam Bay due to a potential ‘terrorist’ attack was not a “pressure tactic”, as investigations reportedly continued.
“We do not consider this as a pressure tactic because the U.S. Embassy clearly advised to avoid traveling to Arugam Bay,” said Sri Lanka’s foreign minister this week. “It was not a travel ban. It is something they have to ensure the safety of their citizens.”
Several foreign embassies, including the US, UK, Russia, Germany and Canada all issued travel warnings to their citizens in the wake of the alleged terror plot. However, Sri Lanka Tourism Alliance Chairman Malik J. Fernando struck back at the travel advisories questioning whether it was “some kind of cruel joke being played on Sri Lanka”.
The seven countries that issued travel advisories accounted for 29 percent of the total tourism arrivals in the first nine months of this year.
“Individuals can come to different conclusions because there was no such incident. But as a government we had to act with full responsibility,” Herath said.
“It is yet to ascertain if this is a false alarm because only after the investigation we will be able to find whether the information is true or false.”
The threat brought back memories of the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks, where suicide bombers targeted churches and several luxury hotels on the island, killing hundreds of people, including foreign tourists. The attacks and its aftermath severely impacted Sri Lanka which is heavily reliant on its tourism sector.
At the time, repeated warnings from foreign agencies were reportedly ignored by Sri Lankan authorities.
