THASL condemns attacks on Muslim community
The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) yesterday condemned the recent mob violence targeting the country’s Muslim community that erupted in certain parts of the island and urged the country’s political leadership to take decisive action to prevent such incidents in future.
Also, THASL urged the religious leaders and civil society to rally around condemning these violent activities and to work towards a common goal in the larger interest of the country.
“For tourism to be successful consistently, political stability and a peaceful atmosphere are of paramount importance.
Therefore, we vehemently condemn any kind of violence in the country, whether it be suicide attacks on the innocent or any type of ethnic violence, which destroys lives and property,” THASL President Sanath Ukwatte said.
Since the end of the ethnic war in 2009, the tourism industry gradually increased and performed extremely well, going from 500,000 visitors to 2.4 million visitors at the end of 2018, with record earnings of US $ 5 billion last year with a GDP contribution exceeding 6.6 percent.
“However, all our dreams were destroyed with suicide bombers targeting tourists in three leading hotels in Colombo. At the moment, hotels are running at 10 percent occupancy islandwide, adversely affecting the livelihoods of two million people in the country,” Ukwatte said.
“At a time when the country and the industry are trying hard to come to terms with so many lives lost on the Easter Sunday attacks, any acts which will take us back to the dark era of our past is detrimental to the survival of our nation not just the industry,” he added.