TOURISM CHIEF REGRETS AKON CONCERT CANCELLATION

Sri Lanka's tourism minister has expressed his disappointment over the cancellation of Akon's tour of the country following public outrage about a sacrilegious video.

The R&B singer was due to perform in Colombo next month (24Apr10) but Buddhist activists' angry protests outside the headquarters of the promoters earlier this week (begs22Mar10) prompted immigration authorities to cancel the star's visa.

The activists were upset after spotting scantily-clad women dancing in front of a Buddha statue in Akon's new video Sexy Chick.

Akon has since apologised for the video oversight, insisting he had no idea about the statue, and he scrapped the Sri Lankan leg of his global tour.

But tourism chief Achala Jagoda regrets the way the situation was handled because the sold-out show would have been good for the economy.

He says, "We were expecting about 5,000 to 6,000 tourists from India, the Maldives and Malaysia to watch the show. The mileage we would have got would have been priceless."

Jagoda accepts it would have been wrong for the government to grant Akon a work permit amid the allegations, but insists "this does not mean that we have a Taliban-style Buddhist following in Sri Lanka".

He adds, "Some parts of Akon's video were not culturally suitable for us."