Wednesday May 06, 2026
Wednesday May 06, 2026
Wednesday, 6 May 2026 02:18 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
A move by the Government to go for a blanket ban on e-cigarettes in Sri Lanka has irked the tourism industry.
Industry analysts said the move will deter tourists among whom there is a growing use of vaping shelving traditional smoking.
For example, in the UK, which is Sri Lanka’s second largest source market with 212,277 tourists last year, for the first time e-cigarette or vape users have overtaken traditional cigarette smokers. There are now 5.4 million vapers (10% of the adult population) as against 4.9 million smokers (9.1%). In Europe overall 4.6% of adults use e-cigarettes. Vaping is also high among the young who form a key component of the outbound travel market. Europe is the biggest source region for Sri Lanka with 1.15 million tourists last year.
Globally there are 129 million vape users.Sri Lanka in 2025 saw tourist arrivals grow by 15% to 2.36 million. So far in 2026 (1 January to 30 April) tourist arrivals amounted to 0.8 million whilst arrivals in April down by 22% to 135,643.
In Sri Lanka traditional cigarettes smoking is banned in public places. The proposed ban e-cigarettes in Sri Lanka is as part of sweeping reforms to create a tobacco-free generation by the Government.
The National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol (NATA) Chairman Dr. Ananda Ratnayake was quoted by the media as saying that legal recommendations have been presented to Health and Mass Media Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa to close any gaps in the existing legislation.
The proposed amendments seek to eliminate the use of all types of e-cigarettes and vaping devices, strengthening laws that already prohibit their sale, import and manufacture.
