Sri Lanka Tourism will seek advice from the Ministry of Health (MoH) to reopen the country for inbound tourists from destinations which have adopted sufficient Covid-19 safety protocols, Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga told the Sunday Observer.
The safe travel list that will create a ‘travel bubble’ between Sri Lanka and other safe destinations is expected by Wednesday (26).
Minister Ranatunga said his Ministry will submit a proposal to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to seek approval for several programs, including the recommendations of countries Sri Lanka will encourage visitors from.
“We are looking at several segments to revive the industry. This includes sports tourism and even providing necessary facilities here for the international film industry,” he added.
In addition to this, the Ministry is expected to invite and encourage investments in the tourism industry which came to a halt following the closure of international airports in March this year.
Sri Lanka Tourism Chief Kimarli Fernando, speaking in this regard, said they are looking at submitting a proposal to the Cabinet of Ministers seeking guidance for the restarting of the industry.
“We will submit the proposal in the next two weeks,” she said.
Minister Ranatunga said that they are awaiting approval from
the MoH to decide on a date to reopen the airports for foreign tourists. The original date for the reopening (August 1) was postponed indefinitely to facilitate the repatriation of Sri Lankans who are working abroad.
Deputy General Manager of the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE), Mangala Randeniya said about 40,000 migrant workers are still awaiting repatriation. Most of the workers are in Qatar, Saudi, UAE and Kuwait.
“We have already repatriated around 10,000 migrant workers. It is hard to predict when we can complete the process because new names are added to the repatriation list every day,” he said.