• SL Tourism Chief says move will boost arrivals in coming months 
• India continues to be the largest source market with 42% or 56,268 in 2021 
• First 10 days records 31,343 tourists to SL 
• Top five markets include; Russia, UK, India, Germany and Ukraine  

By Charumini de Silva 

 In a major breakthrough, the Government has decided to facilitate tourists from India through visa on arrival. 

The on-arrival Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) facility is now available for tourists from India along with other countries. “We were giving on arrival visas for European countries and about two days ago India was also added. We hope the move will help to attract a lot of tourists in the coming months,” Sri Lanka Tourism Chairperson Kimarli Fernando told Weekend FT. 

India was the largest source of tourist visits to Sri Lanka with 56,268 or 42% of the total traffic received in 2021. The quarantine-free stay, close proximity and attractive offers on flight tickets have lured Indian tourists to visit Sri Lanka for leisure travel and vacations. 

However, it is mandatory for all “tourist visa” holders to have the COVID-19 insurance cover of minimum $ 50,000 and it could be purchased online https://portal.pionline.lk/covidinsurance/ or on arrival. 

During the first 10 days of February, 31,343 tourists arrived in the country led by 4,566 Russians, followed by 3,799 from the UK, 3,575 from India, 2,389 from Germany and 2,109 from Ukraine. 

On 2 February, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced that on arrival Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) will be issued to tourists from several countries due the technical glitch experienced by travellers who are applying through the online system. 

“The Immigration and Emigration Department has informed that the tourists from the certain countries, who are unsuccessful in making credit card payments for ETA to travel to Sri Lanka, due to the ongoing upgrade and maintenance of the ETA front-end system, will be issued on arrival ETA (at the port of entry to Sri Lanka) as an alternative Channel, with a view to promote the tourism industry,” CAA Chairman Upul Dharmadasa said. 

These countries include; Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Greece, Sweden, Hungary, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, United States of America, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Estonia, Mauritius, Iceland, Cuba, Singapore, Russia and Ukraine. 

 

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