There would be no long-term impacts for tourism from the terrorist attack at the Air Force base in Katunayake, said the President of the Tourist Hotels Association Hiran Cooray.

He said unlike previous year’s there is a collative effort with both the private sector and the Government working together to minimize the long-term impacts on tourism from the incident. Minister of Tourism Milinda Moragoda, Deputy Minister Fizer Mustafa and Chairman Sri Lanka Tourist Board visited the airport hours after the incident. “This is very encouraging and the industry is happy about the responsible manner in which they acted,” he said.

He said the private sector and the Tourist Board have already spoken to foreign correspondents, embassies, travel and tour operators on this incident and given them the true picture. The Colombo Airport has not been the target of the attack.

He said that they are now talking to the airlines requesting them not to have additional insurance premiums on air tickets to Colombo.