Cabinet of Sri Lankan has approved free tourist visas to Indians and citizens from six other countries under a pilot programme
- Sri Lankan Cabinet has approved free tourist visas to Indians and citizens from six other countries.
- Indians will get free visas to Sri Lanka under a pilot programme. This programme will continue till March 31, 2024.
- Six other countries are Russia, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Japan.
- Tourists from these seven countries can obtain visas without any fee to Sri Lanka.
- The step is aimed at reviving Sri Lanka’s tourism industry. It has been taken to generate a target of five million arrivals by 2026.
- Before the pandemic, tourism was the third-largest source of foreign exchange inflows to Sri Lanka.
- India has been Sri Lanka’s top inbound tourism market.
- India is the largest source of tourists so far this year, followed by Russia.
- Wickremesinghe had recently proposed making the area a “border-less tourism” region on the lines of the Schengen area.
- The Schengen Area is an area comprising 27 European countries that have abolished passports.