Sri Lanka has reopened to tourists after more than nine months in a pilot program to help its depleted tourism industry. The first group of 186 tourists arrived on a special flight from Ukraine on Monday and are expected to stay for 10 days mostly in the popular southern coastline region. The tourism sector accounts for 5 percent of Sri Lanka's GDP, employs 250,000 people directly and up to 2 million indirectly. Hotels and other businesses have been hurt severely without foreign tourists. Sri Lanka has confirmed 41,602 infections since March, and most of them have been connected to two clusters at a Brandix garments factory and a crowded wholesale fish market since October.-AP

Source: The Standard December 29, 2020 09:01 UTC