Sri Lanka opens up

SL has reopened for vaccinated Indian tourists, accepting all vaccines, including Covaxin with a mandatory insurance policy for all the tourists.

Janice Alyosius

Fully vaccinated Indian tourists can move freely around Sri Lanka, after an, on-arrival test, as the country reopens its borders to India. Only fully vaccinated Indians who have completed the recommended vaccine doses will be considered (after two weeks from their final vaccination), with no minimum stay period requirements.

For the benefit of the members, a webinar was organised by the Consulate of Sri Lanka in Mumbai along with the Sri Lankan Tourism Promotion Bureau, on creating awareness about the new protocols for travel to Sri Lanka for Indians.

Speakers from The Tourist Hotel Association of Sri Lanka (THASL), Sri Lanka Inbound Tour Operators Association (SLAITO), Association for Small & Medium Enterprises in Tourism (ASMET), also shared their views on catering to the demand under the new normal.

President, The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka, SanathUkwatte, said that they are expecting good response from the Indian travellers. “ We are getting about 1,000 requests a day for visas from Indians, which is a huge surge. For travelling to Sri Lanka, they should have the Indian government approved vaccination certificate. We have over 204 safe hotels to choose from. They all have safe and secure certification. We also have range of Indian food offered in almost all hotels.”

Recently, Kimarli Fernando, Chairperson, Sri Lanka Tourism, revealed that the island nation has launched a US$12 (`890) mandatory insurance for a policy of US$50,000 (`37 lakh) valid up to one month. She also mentioned unlike a lot of countries, both Covaxin and Covishield are accepted by Sri Lanka. “We are using this opportunity to shift gears in tourism. Despite COVID, 2021-2030 has been declared as the tourism decade for Sri Lanka and we see this as a time to do things we did not do in the past. We are creating a strategic development plan.”

TAAI VP, Jay Bhatia, highlighted the need for Sri Lankan Tourism Board to incentivise agents for promoting tourism to the island nation and special incentives for promoting sports tourism, adventure tourism, MICE,weddings, small groups etc.

He said that being close to India, Sri Lanka should try to promote itself also  a weekend getaway. With opening of its borders with protocols, Sri Lanka should initially concentrate on repeat travellers, which shall boost the confidence of first-time travellers. He also suggested that roadshows, training programmes and webinars along with TAAI should be held to educate and update the members in detail, which shall assist in enhancing tourism to Sri Lanka.

TAFI President, Ajay Prakash, said that Sri Lanka is like a little jewel in the Indian Ocean. More awareness and promotion is required to boost Sri Lanka’s tourism and for that greater connectivity, incentivisation and more road shows are needed. “With vaccinations picking up pace in India, and with relaxation of only two day stay in hotel, will provide great boost to the Sri Lankan tourism market.  Sri Lankan tourism should consider tourist’s participation activities. When a tourist participates, she/he is much more connected, and is more likely to return and become an ambassador of that country. Hence, it is important that we encourage activity-based tourism”, said Prakash.