Sri Lanka re-launches free visa on arrival for Indians
Sri Lanka on Wednesday included India and China in the free visa on arrival scheme to revive the country's tourism sector which witnessed a slump following the Easter Sunday bombings.
In April, Sri Lanka suspended its plans to grant visas on arrival to citizens of 39 countries after the devastating Easter suicide bombings that killed 258 people.
Nine suicide bombers attacked three churches and as many luxury hotels on April 21, in the country's worst terror attacks. The ISIS terror group claimed the attacks, but the government blamed the local Islamist extremist group National Thawheed Jammath (NTJ) for the Easter Sunday bombings.
Sri Lanka has re-launched the free visa on arrival scheme, which will be enforced from August 1, for the suspended 39 countries and has also expanded the service to tourists from India and China, Tourism and Christian Affairs Minister John Amaratunge was quoted as saying by the Sri Lanka Mirror news portal.
Previously, India and China were not included in the free visa category. Plans had been made to exempt several European countries from visa fee, but the implementation of this process had been delayed due to the deadly attacks, Amaratunge said during a function held on Tuesday.
The scheme already allowed tourists from Thailand, the European Union, the UK, the US, Japan, Australia, Switzerland, Cambodia.
Originally the scheme was to come into force on May 1 but the security fears after the jihadi bombings forced it to be put on hold.
Sri Lanka's tourist arrivals declined 7.5 per cent in April 2019 compared to the same period last year, according to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority's first monthly report since the terror attacks.
