We need tourists back to revive Sri Lanka: Sanath Jayasuriya urges Indians to visit Sri Lanka
Oct 01, 2022
Colombo [Sri Lanka], October 1 : Sri Lanka great Sanath Jayasuriya has urged all the Indians to visit Sri Lanka and help the country revive the economic crisis.
Jayasuriya is currently playing for the Sri Lanka Legends team in the ongoing Road Safety World Series. 
The Sri Lanka great took to the tweeter and wrote, "We got everything in my small Island for tourists, it's a lovely place to visit, we went through a bad phase and now we need tourists back to revive Sri Lanka, I am requesting all our Indian friends to #VisitSriLanka."
The post also featured a video in which Jayasuriya said, "We want more Indians to come and visit Sri Lanka. We have several cultural and nice places to visit in Sri Lanka. We have everything on the small Island."
"It's important for us to support Sri Lanka as a team. Players are also doing their bit. We are expecting 1 million tours by the end of this year. We are focussing and promoting mainly India to come and visit Sri Lanka and see how beautiful this country is," he further said.
Recently, economic crisis-hit Sri Lanka won the Asia Cup 2022 in UAE by defeating Pakistan in the final. The tournament was shifted to the United Arab Emirates from Sri Lanka because of the country's political and economic crisis.
Sri Lanka is suffering its worst economic crisis since gaining independence in 1948, which comes on the heels of successive waves of COVID-19, threatening to undo years of development progress and severely undermining the country's ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The oil supply shortage has forced schools and government offices to close until further notice. Reduced domestic agricultural production, a lack of foreign exchange reserves, and local currency depreciation have fuelled the shortages.
The economic crisis will push families into hunger and poverty - some for the first time - adding to the half a million people who the World Bank estimates have fallen below the poverty line because of the pandemic.
