Harin Fernando, the minister of tourism for Sri Lanka, has expressed regret for the comment he made about Maldives tourism, in which he described the island country as being uninteresting.
Fernando apologized in a tweet on Monday, claiming that his comments about the Maldives at the Internationale Tourismus Börse (ITB), which was hosted in Berlin, Germany, from March 7 to March 9, had been misconstrued as him endorsing Sri Lanka.
He continued by saying that Sri Lanka collaborated with its neighbors on the tourist industry and expressed regret for any annoyance his comments may have caused.
Fernando made a comparison between Sri Lankan and Maldivian tourism at the ITB show. The Maldives, however, only have beaches. After staying there for five days, you grow tired of it. You’re merely trapped in one location on an island. That is not the case in Sri Lanka, he said.
He received instant backlash for the comments, with many people decrying his callousness on social media. Some of those who were critical of Fernando claimed that it was unfair to diminish Maldives tourism given that the country shares borders with Sri Lanka. Many people also believed it would be wise for Sri Lanka to emulate the tourism triumphs of the Maldives.
Dr. Abdulla Mausoom, the tourism minister for the Maldives, had implicitly retaliated against Fernando by tweeting that the Maldives had won the title of World’s Leading Destination for the past three years in a row.
