China was today the first country to relax its travel advisory to Sri Lanka, just over a month since the Easter Sunday bombings.
“We are happy announce that the travel ban on visiting Sri Lanka implemented by China has now been toned down to ‘be cautious’ while travelling to Sri Lanka from ‘Do not travel to Sri Lanka’,” Sri Lanka's Tourism Development Authority said.
Yesterday Sri Lanka's prime minister appealed to the international community to relax the travel warnings issued after the bombings, stating that the security situation was safe.
The island's tourism industry has suffered greatly since the bombings, seeing a significant reduction in flights into the country and hotel bookings.
Four Chinese scientists were among those killed during the suicide bombings by Islamist extremists.
The four, Li Jian, a senior engineer of the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Pan Wenliang, a senior engineer at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Li Dawei, assistant researcher at the Ministry of Natural Resources and a doctoral student, Wang Liwei, were staying at the Kingsbury Hotel when the bomb went off.
Two other Chinese nationals also lost their lives.
