The 48 Visa fee exempted countries include Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, United Kingdom and United States.
Sri Lanka hopes the August 1 launch of its Visa Fee Exemption programme for a period of six months will bring visitors back to the country following April’s deadly attacks.
The visa granted will be for a 30-day stay and can be applied for in advance online via – http://www.eta.gov.lk/slvisa/ or provided on arrival.
The 48 Visa fee exempted countries include Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, United Kingdom and United States.
A July 26 report from ForwardKeys, which analyses over 17 million flight bookings a day, revealed that three months after the Easter Sunday suicide bombings, on April 21, Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is still suffering, although a slow recovery appears to be underway.
Between January 1 and April 21, international flight bookings to Sri Lanka were 3% up on the year before. However, in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, there was a spike in cancellations and bookings collapsed.
The first week saw a decline of 181%, which means that in addition to no new bookings being made, there was a wave of cancellations of existing bookings.
From the beginning of May, a weak recovery trend began, but bookings still have a long way to go before they are back to last year’s levels.
Over the three-month period (April 22 – July 21), bookings have been 69% down on the equivalent dates in 2018.