14-day bubble tours in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka Tourism on Thursday opened its doors to international travellers after a 10-month lapse with new health guidelines to follow amidst a crowded gathering under questionable safety precautions at the event itself.
As Sri Lanka opens its doors to the world, Sri Lanka has to ensure that the place is safe, secure and serene, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority Chairperson Kimarl i Fernando said as she launched the guidelines on the health regulations at the Atrium lobby of the Cinnamon Grand in Colombo.
The tourism website is constantly updated and needs to be checked for new information, she said adding that the Command Centre operating 24 hours will be available to monitor and communicate with the industry.
Violating the health guidelines could amount to an offence and in this respect the travel and tour agencies should inform the clients of the regulations to follow and ensure no violations occur during the tour, Ms. Fernando said.
In addition, private sector hospitals will be included in the list of places that tourists falling sick due to COVID- 19 could be accommodated where the insurance for COVID-19 is applicable, she said adding that however, any asymptomatic patients could be housed within the hotels itself separately.
In this respect, 25 per cent of the rooms in the hotels are to be kept vacant as tourists are allowed to stay in only Level 1 hotels during the first 14 days of their stay and tour of the country, Ms. Fernando highlighted.
To u r i s m M i n i s t e r Prasanna Ranatung a addressing the gathering pointed out that the purpose of these new normal measures is to ensure that tourists do not infect the community and vice versa.
With no targets set out the minister said that they hope to better the numbers achieved in the past in time to come in addition to the gradual return of airlines to the country as commercial flights are allowed to operate.
He noted that they have opened up 16 identified plac
es for tourists to travel to in addition to shopping at the Laksala shops wherever available. “We want to make sure tourists can be allowed to be free,” the minister said.
Tourism Adv i s o r y Committee Chairman Hiran Cooray commended the opening of the borders and pointed out the concerns of the 3 million people suffering as a result of a lack of income due to the absence of tourists.
He also explained how his 94 staff is continuously being tested every other day and another backup staff is also being maintained on the premises of the Lighthouse hotel, Galle itself during the tour of the English cricket team.
SriLankan Airlines CEO Ashok Pathirage said that the national carrier is ready to bring down tourists and that they were also looking at opening up new routes to Moscow by February 15.