UK relaxes travel advisory giving much-needed boost for SL tourism

The UK has relaxed its travel advisory on Sri Lanka giving a much needed big boost to the struggling tourism industry due to multiple crises.

The UK Government in its latest (26 August) foreign travel advice said it no longer advises against all but essential travel to Sri Lanka. Pre-COVID UK was the second largest tourist source market for Sri Lanka.

In July arrivals from the UK were the highest with 342 and in the first seven months of 2022 there were 58,879 tourists from the UK accounting for 13% of total.

The Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO) expressed delight over the UK Government’s latest travel advisory update.

“With this positive news we hope several EU countries also will follow what others - France, Norway and Switzerland have already done by way of relaxing travel advisories,” SLAITO said.

“We will be participating at the World Travel Market in London which will also give us an opportunity to meet our tour operators and promote Sri Lanka,” SLAITO added.

It also said SLAITO members are thankful to the UK High Commission and Ambassador of France, Switzerland and Norway and Tourism Minister Harin Fernando for their unstinted support.