Sri Lanka looks to deepen tourism cooperation with China

Sri Lanka looks forward to deepening cooperation with China in the tourism sector, said Minister of Tourism Development John Amaratunga on Thursday.

Meeting with the CEO of the Asia Pacific Daily Jin Wensheng and his delegation in Colombo, Amaratunga said that his country is looking at becoming a globally recognized tourism destination.

Asia Pacific Daily is an international news website operating under the wing of China's official Xinhua News Agency.

The two sides exchanged views on deepening cooperation and promoting and expanding Sri Lanka tourism in China.

Amaratunga extended his warm welcome to Jin and his delegation, and explained to him the current tourism market in Sri Lanka and special natural landscapes and folk customs of the country.

He said that the Sri Lanka government attached great attention to tourism, given its abundant natural resources and splendid history and civilizations, and intends to make tourism a dominant industry of the national economy.

Amaratunga also said that he would lead a high-level delegation to China and seek further cooperation with the world's largest outbound tourism market to comprehensively upgrade the tourism market of Sri Lanka.

The Minister said that besides tourism cooperation, the two countries news media should also strengthen communication, including the Asia Pacific Daily which is an influential and comprehensive media platform.

The APD delegation has visited Sri Lanka several times, and was received by President Maithripala Sirisena and other top government officials.