Foreign Affairs and Tourism Minister Vijitha Herath and Deputy Minister of Tourism Ruwan Ranasinghe have presented contradictory statistics on the income received by the country from the tourism industry in the first six months of this year.
Although Foreign Affairs and Tourism Minister Vijitha Herath stated at a ceremony that tourism income in the first six months of the year was US$ 3.7 billion, Deputy Minister of Tourism Ruwan Ranasinghe stated at a media briefing that according to Central Bank reports, tourism income in the first six months was US$ 1.7 billion.
He further stated that the data for July is not included in this report, and even if that data were available, he does not think that such a high income (US$ 3.7 billion) was received.