The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) yesterday welcomed the move by the United Kingdom to remove Sri Lanka from its travel ‘Red List’ ahead of the winter season.

The move, which comes into effect from Wednesday (22), is likely to result in the return of high-spending travellers from the UK to Sri Lanka.

“We are extremely delighted with the decision to remove Sri Lanka from the travel ‘Red List’ of the UK. The move has brought hope to the industry, which has lost three winter seasons post-Easter Sunday attacks,” THASL President Sanath Ukwatte told the Daily FT.

He said the double whammy of the Easter Sunday attacks and the COVID pandemic had been a major blow to the tourism industry as well as the economy.

“It’s a breath of fresh air for all of us engaged in the industry, not just for us hoteliers. Traditionally, the UK has been a key tourist generating market with high-end and repeat travellers. It is obvious that tourists from the UK have a major impact on the overall tourism scenario, and are therefore, a vital and important component of Sri Lanka’s tourism market,” he said.

Tourist arrivals in August sharply increased by 107% to 5,040 from July, despite the ongoing third wave of the COVID-pandemic. 

In August, the largest source markets were Canada (594), Germany (512) and the UK (489). 

The UK had been one of the key tourist markets for years. During the first eight months, the UK accounted for 8% of the total traffic to Sri Lanka.

THASL had also lobbied the Government to change its travel protocols on par with other countries and be supportive for the sector to recover.

“We would also like to see less travel protocols for international travellers and allow lateral-flow-tests proposed in the UK instead of the time-consuming PCR tests. Easy entry measures will encourage tourists to choose Sri Lanka over other competitive travel destinations, whilst also helping the economy with the much-needed foreign exchange earnings,” Ukwatte said.

Sri Lanka off UK’s Red List from tomorrow