June 24 (ECONOMYNEXT) – Sri Lanka is planning to host Ed Sheeran concert in January 2025, supported by Cinnamon hospitality group, Minister of Tourism Harin Fernando said.
“Recently a company came forward to bring Ed Sheeran, the one of key singers to Sri Lanka in January or February,” Fernando told reporters in Colombo Monday.
“Cinnamon Life is the firm that has undertaken to bring him.”
This would be a first international pop star performance in the island for many years.
The Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau also said that they would be developing Sri Lanka’s entertainment in order to compete with neighboring countries.
“We compete with countries such as Thailand, Maldives and Singapore,” Fernando said.
Despite the competition, Sri Lanka has not had a concert by an international artist since 2015.
Sri Lanka expects 2.3 million tourists in 2024 and the tourist authorities said initially an even higher number was possible.
However in April, e-visa’s were given over to a private consortium, which has a website which is difficult to navigate, and tourism growth numbers have started fall. (Colombo/Jun24/2024 – Update II)
