• PM outlines digital push and new tourism investments

The Government aims to attract four million tourists a year and generate $8 billion in tourism revenue by 2030, Prime Minister Dr Harini Amarasuriya said yesterday (27).

She made the remarks at the 2026 World Tourism Day celebrations held at the Western Provincial Council Auditorium under the theme “Digital Agenda and Artificial Intelligence to Redesign Tourism”.

Dr Amarasuriya said the 2026 Budget had allocated Rs 6 billion for international digital promotional campaigns, Rs 3.5 billion for environmentally friendly and cultural heritage projects, Rs 1 billion for airport modernisation and Rs 500 million for human resource development.

She also invited school students to consider tourism as a career path through school-level Tourism Clubs and the upcoming education reforms.

She further said the world was undergoing a rapid digital transformation and that one of the key objectives of the Government’s “A Rich Country, A Beautiful Life” policy was to strengthen the economy by equipping all sectors with modern technology and carrying out reforms.

She said Sri Lanka had made significant progress in the tourism sector since 2024, with more than 2.5 million tourists visiting the country that year and generating $3.1 billion in revenue. She said 2,362,521 tourists visited Sri Lanka in 2025, generating $3.2 billion in foreign exchange.

“We should not forget that Sri Lanka had to face Cyclone Ditwah in 2025 just as we were approaching the peak of the tourism season. But we should all be happy that we were able to manage this successfully in this manner,” she said.

Dr Amarasuriya further said the 2026 Budget had allocated a significant amount of funding towards developing tourism in line with the Government’s policy. She said Rs 6 billion had been allocated for tourism promotion, including a digital promotional campaign to take Sri Lanka to international audiences.

Addressing schoolchildren present at the event, she invited them to consider tourism as a field for their future careers and said the Government expected to create opportunities for students to learn more about the professional side of the industry through school-level Tourism Clubs and upcoming education reforms.

She said developing the sector also required investment in its human resources. “Our goal going forward is to bring four million tourists to this country annually by 2030 and achieve a revenue target of $8 billion." She further said several approaches would be needed to meet this target, adding that tourism should be linked to the country’s wider development goals rather than being measured only by the number of people arriving at airports.