Sri Lanka’s cabinet has given the green light to offer complimentary tourist visas to visitors from seven countries, including China, India, and Russia, in a bid to stimulate tourism and aid the recovery of its economy, according to a statement issued by the media ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under this pilot program, tourists from China, India, Russia, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia will receive free visas until March 31, 2024. The move is a part of Sri Lanka’s broader efforts to revitalize its tourism sector and reach a target of five million arrivals by 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sri Lanka, known for its picturesque beaches, ancient temples, and renowned tea, suffered significant setbacks to its tourism industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a severe financial crisis in the previous year, marked by widespread protests and essential shortages such as fuel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, 2023 has seen a positive shift in the tourism sector, with Sri Lanka welcoming its millionth visitor by September, a milestone not reached since 2019. The nation is projected to conclude the year with 1.5 million arrivals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Latest data from the Sri Lanka Development Authority revealed that India is the largest source of tourists, contributing 200,310 arrivals, followed by Russia with 132,300.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the central bank, Sri Lanka garnered $1.3 billion from tourism during the first eight months of 2023, a notable increase from the $833 million generated during the same period the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(With input from agencies)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sri Lanka’s cabinet has given the green light to offer complimentary tourist visas to visitors from seven countries, including China, India, and Russia, in a bid to stimulate tourism and aid the recovery of its economy, according to a statement issued by the media ministry. Under this pilot program, tourists from China, India, Russia, Japan, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-286","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-travel-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/responsibletravelworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/responsibletravelworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/responsibletravelworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/responsibletravelworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/responsibletravelworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/responsibletravelworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":288,"href":"https:\/\/responsibletravelworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions\/288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/responsibletravelworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/responsibletravelworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/responsibletravelworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/responsibletravelworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}