Sri Lanka has decided to extend the free visa on arrival facility offered to seven countries, India, China, Russia, Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia and Thailand as a pilot project until April 30. It was to expire at the end of March 2024, said Minister of Tourism, Land and Sports Harin Fernando.
A final decision to further extend it will be taken during the next few weeks.’ Fernando tweeted.
The decision led to an increase of tourist arrivals mainly from India and Russia though the other markets did not show that much promising numbers, industry experts said.
Meanwhile Sri Lanka is expected to pass the one million arrivals mark from December 2023 to March 31, 2024 in mid April 2024.
Each of the months saw the arrivals pass the 200,000 mark and on March 31, 2024 the country recorded a monthly arrival figure of 209,181 and the total figure was 608,475 from January to March 31 with January recording 208,253 and February 218,350.
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