Sri Lanka open up for more tourists from Thursday

The country would open for tourists from most parts of the world from Thursday and continue with repatriation flights, but would remain closed for other Sri Lankans planning to return, officials said.

Accordingly the country will receive upto 2,550 tourists and a maximum of 750 locals on repatriation flights a day.

A senior Tourism Ministry official said that under the latest plans, the tourists and those arriving on repatriation flights would be moved to hotels and government maintained quarantine centres where they would undergo the first PCR test after arrival, instead of carrying out the test at the airport. He said the measure had been taken as a precaution by minimising the time of stay of those arriving at the airport. “This will also have limitations in the number of flights arriving and therefore the procedure has been changed with the approval of the health authorities," he said.

In addition, those arriving on business purposes would be allowed under a separate set of guidelines. They would have to move into a selected hotel where they would be able to meet with local counterparts or hold other meetings under health guidelines, without leaving the hotel.

Private jets will be allowed to use the Ratmalana airport.

The official said that under the new plans, the tourists would be allowed to visit only tourist sites approved by the COVID Task Force under a ‘bio security bubble” where they would be confined only to their group. This is in contrast to the situation where some Ukrainian tourists were required to stay inside the hotel for seven days before leaving.

Under the new plans, after two weeks, during which the tourists would have undergone two more PCR tests, they would be able interact with the local community, the official said.

Guidelines also had been issued to shops and business establishments interacting with the tourists.

The drivers, guides and those dealing with foreign tourists at the sites, will not be required to undergo a 14-day quarantine period, if they continue to wear the Personal Protective Equipment kits during the visits. This is in contrast to the existing system where they were compelled to undergo two weeks of quarantine after the departure of tourists.

Meanwhile, private travel agents have been advised to start organising chartered flights from countries other than those which have closed their borders.

Meanwhile, tourism authorities say they expect to attract more than one million tourists this year.