Sri Lanka: Sleeping beauty in tourism

On the other hand, destinations like India’s Goa have already lined up their promotional campaigns to issue about 500,000 visas free of charge ahead of their scheduled opening in November.

And while Thailand and Vietnam have not yet opened up, once they do, the scenario will change completely with most travellers eyeing these destinations.

Sri Lanka Tour Operators Association Immediate Past President Mahen

Kariyawasam told the Business Times that in order to increase the numbers going forward a promotional campaign needed to be carried out.

In this respect, he forecasts that with a proper promotional campaign under the current conditions Sri Lanka is capable of attracting approximately 420, 000 tourists for the winter season.

He also forecasts that if permission is granted for unvaccinated tourists to arrive with a PCR test 72 hours before boarding and one PCR test on arrival to enter society then “we can get more tourists.”

The reason for this is that in countries like Russia, CIS and Eastern Europe, the majority of the citizens are still not vaccinated. However, they are riskaverse travellers, he pointed out. Mr. Kariyawasam also noted that about 20 companies will be attending the World Travel Mart (WTM) in the UK next month.