The much talked about and controversial “Minimum Room Rate” (MRR) for city hotels will be abolished from May 31, Minister of Tourism, Lands and Sports, Harin Fernando told the media on Friday.
He said this MRR was introduced towards the last quarter of 2023 to upgrade the rates of the city hotels and this objective has now been met. “We see room’s rates have moved up by around 33%.
Occupancy levels too have increased from 46% to near 70% hence we believe the industry is now mature enough to continue from this stage.”
It was also revealed that the MICE industry had not suffered from the implementation of the MRR.
The Minister said that the current visa issue is not something initiated by the Ministry of Tourism or by him. “However, this issue has been now settled to the best of my knowledge,” Minister Fernando said.
He said that Minister of National Security Tiran Alles will shed more light on this tomorrow.
The Minister said that globally – countries are moving towards a ‘free on arrival visa’ and with the intention of moving towards this direction Sri Lanka now offers visas for seven countries.
“However, a new visa system came into effect without my knowledge which derailed this system and a controversy broke out at the Colombo Airport creating chaos and adverse publicity. This is because the new visa system lacked some of the advantages which were enjoyed earlier.”
Fernando said that there may have been opposition by some of the immigration officials to purposely ‘fail’ this system and an inquiry will be initiated soon.
The Minister said that this issue has now been resolved and now they are looking to introduce a free visa on arrival to 67 countries. “The Cabinet has also given the green light for this and I am working with Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ali Sabry in this regard,” he added.
