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Source: Reuters Sri Lanka's tourism industry will recover faster than that of other tsunami-hit countries in Asia because the island nation has taken quick steps to revive the sector, the World Tourism Organisation said on Thursday. Tourism contributes about 2.0 percent to Sri Lanka's gross domestic product. More than 100 hotels were badly damaged or destroyed by the Dec. 26 tsunami, which left nearly 300,000 dead or missing in 13 countries, nearly 40,000 of them in Sri Lanka. "The progress made after five weeks as far as reconstruction is concerned is impressive," Francesco Frangialli, secretary general of the U.N.'s World Tourism Organisation, told reporters in Colombo. "We feel the recovery here will be faster than other Asian nations hit by the tsunami," Frangialli said. Frangialli is visiting the country after attending a two-day meeting in Bangkok where tourism officials proposed a global campaign for coming months to persuade tourists to return to tsunami-stricken Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Maldives. Sri Lanka's tourism industry, revitalised by a three-year ceasefire between the government and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, was badly hit by the tsunami. The World Bank said on Wednesday the tsunami caused extensive damage to the sector amounting to about $200 million in damages to facilities, with estimated number of tourists in 2005 now revised downwards by 100,000 people. A record 565,000 tourists visited Sri Lanka in 2004, tourist board figures show. The total was expected to top 600,000 this year. "The best thing we can do now for Sri Lanka tourism is to encourage the early return of tourists," Frangialli said. The Indian Ocean island's white sand beaches are a magnet for European tourists, and steady arrival growth helped spur the island's stock market to all time highs towards the end of 2004.
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