Nuseir Yassin, a popular international video blogger who operates the Nas Daily Corporation, has nominated Sri Lanka as the most generous country during the difficult lockdown times of Covid19. This video production company is a huge social media influencer as a result of the weekly videos they upload regarding lifestyle in different countries across the world.
The latest upload has been an appraisal of how Sri Lanka made extra efforts to host tourists who were stranded in the country due to the Coronavirus lockdown strategy, with particular emphasis on the small and beautiful town of Ella.
Kind and Generous residents of Ella
Nas Daily starts the video with an introduction of what’s happening in the global airport shut-down scenarios – the fact that millions of people are stuck in countries that they do not belong in. Emotional wrecks are a consequence of this situation because these people have run out of money, are all alone and away from their families. Flying back home is impossible and illegal!
“So what are these millions of people supposed to do?”
While fighting Covid19 for its nation, Sri Lanka is the only country that is also trying to solve the above problem.
If you have ever visited or planned a holiday in Sri Lanka, you must have surely heard of the small and picturesque hill-country town of Ella. 14 tourists have been stuck here, without a home, and unable to afford a hotel. To help these tourists, the entire town of Ella got together to give them food, accommodation, and hospitality away from their actual families. Tourists quoted the residents of Ella as extremely ‘kind and generous’.
Apart from these 14 tourists, action was being taken on the entire country level.
Tourism Disaster Monitoring and Hosting Program
This program was designed to support every stranded tourist in the country. Any foreigner stranded in Sri Lanka could reach out to this program and they will find you a host – give you a home, food, and monetary support to survive the lockdown. In other words, Nas Daily quotes – “they will be your family away from family”.
Under the guidance of Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, this campaign involved a team to travel across the country for four days, on the lookout for tourists. Their tour of Sri Lanka included the following destinations:
- Colombo
- Katunayake
- Negombo
- Kandy
- Nuwara Eliya
- Ella
- Passikuda
- Arugambay
- Udawalawe
- Mirissa
- Unawatuna
- Hiikkaduwa
- Bentota
The team visited these tourist families and handed out dry ration packages, familiarized them with the current situation, and identified and assisted them with any difficulties they have been facing.
While the Government is focusing to safeguard the citizens of Sri Lanka, we also realize the importance of taking care of tourists who visited Sri Lanka while trusting the country.
Right now, many tourists across the world are unable to fly home and are unable to afford a hotel in a lockdown; these tourists also need taking care of. Programs like these need more publicity so that other countries can also implement them and help those millions of people.
Support Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is a developing nation and 12.5% of its economy is built on tourism. Before Covid19, tourism was the lifeline of the economy, but now, the industry is suffering. The Nas Daily video goes on to say that it is worthy to note that even when tourism went down to zero, Sri Lanka maintained its policy of treating tourists with dignity and respect. Just like they appreciate tourists during good times, in bad times they help tourists.
Let’s take a moment here to pray that tourism comes back to life in this beautiful paradise island. And of course, this is impossible without the support of tourists themselves. Now that Sri Lanka has opened its economy and is taking necessary disinfectant measures at every point in an effort to make the country Covid free, we encourage tourists to visit Sri Lanka as an appreciation to our acts of kindness. Come visit Sri Lanka, stay at local hotels, and help boost our economy again!