Tourism was one of the fastest growing sectors in Asia and is the third largest foreign exchange earner in Sri Lanka. When the Covid-19 pandemic surfaced in 2020, tourism was the one to face the immediate impact and one of the industries to be strained the most. Sri Lanka first went into lockdown including the airport closure in March 2020 to control the spread of the virus. The tourist arrivals globally fell abruptly for the first time in the history of tourism and came to a complete halt for a period of 10 months till 21st January 2021. This comes at a situation when the Sri Lankan Tourism industry was suffering from the negative impacts of the Easter attack. Thus from 2019 onwards the industry has not been able to function in full operation. Resulting in two Bear winter seasons in 2019 and 2020. Thus the need to recover fast, steady yet in a prudent manner.
