Sri Lanka will soon revert back to the ‘Free Visa on Arrival’ policy to woo more tourists to visit the country, said State Minister for Tourism, Diana Gamage. This would not be limited only to European investors but to all nationals.
She told Sunday Observer Business on the sidelines of the launch of Sri Lanka’s first “Blockchain Centre Sri Lanka” in Colombo, that many countries including Singapore and the Maldives are successfully implementing this.”
The scheme has yielded very positive results and despite both countries being smaller in size to Sri Lanka, has more visitors and earns more tourism revenue than Sri Lanka.
“One of the key secrets for their success undoubtedly is the free Visa on arrival and its high time Sri Lanka too takes a leaf from this and implements it,” she said.
She said that the ‘Free Visa on Arrival’ scheme will also boost investments to the country.
She also explained that economic benefits would be far greater than the current revenue gained from Visa fee to the country.
“I think it’s better to forget the USD 50 visa fee from a single passenger and woo tourists who spend around USD 1,000 per day. This is what Singapore and many other countries are successfully doing.”
She also said that the Visa fee could be compensated through other means.
She said that the Government is also looking at introducing a ‘Golden Visa’ system to woo investors who deposit USD 250, 000 in a local bank or invest it in a government-approved project. A tourism travel pass that includes all major tourist attractions bundled into one package too would soon be offered.
She said that they are also talking to the Railway authorities to do away with the physical ticket when booking rail journeys online. “Sri Lanka may be the only country that requests passengers to book and pay online and then go to the station and get a print out. The Railway checker should accept the online receipt.”