Coronavirus epidemic causes slight drop in tourism: Tamur

THERE is a slight drop in tourism due to the coronavirus epidemic but Minister for Tourism Arts and Culture Emil Tamur says the Government stands is to protect its citizens first from the virus.
“The number of tourists coming into the country will be affected but we will still continue to support our cultural events that will happen this year,” he said.
Tamur said there were decisions already being made on the measures to take for tourist cruises coming into the country.
However, he said that he would let the rightful minister do the official announcement on the decisions that were made.
The issue of coronavirus has also forced the minister to stop a group of about 150 people from the country to travel to Hawaii for a cultural festival in June.
Tamur said his decision was made given that the safety of the people being paramount.
“We don’t want to put our citizens at risk by sending them. Just imagine a group of 150 people mixing around with people in these cultural events,” Tamur said.
However, Tamur made a call for all cultural events and shows to be hosted this year to go on.
“We must not stop hosting our cultural events and shows and let’s just hope that things will get back to normal next year so tourists will start coming again,” he said.
Tamur said his ministry would continue to support the cultural events that would be hosted this year.
“To this date our supports are still here even though we are going through hard times that our country is facing, but we will help in managing and supporting the cultural events in small ways we can,” he said.
Tamur thanked National Cultural Commission acting executive director Steven Kilanda and his administration team for putting together all the cultural events on the calendar that would be launched this year.