Sri Lanka is set to bring in changes to its new visa online regulation for tourists visiting the country from both SAARC and non-SAARC nations.
Unofficially announcing the new changes, Sri Lanka Tourism Authority Chairman Dr. Nalaka Godahewa said it would involve the reduction of the visa processing fee from US$50 to US$10 for SAARC nationals and US$20 for non-SAARC nations. He was addressing a media briefing in Colombo on Wednesday held to introduce the “Sancharaka Udawa” tourism industry’s meet mart for the second consecutive year.
In addition, he said while there will be no charge for a visa processing fee of upto 48 hours for those in transit in Colombo, children under 12 years of age will also not be charged any visa processing fees.
The new changes came as a result of India informing the government of the necessity to provide nominal rates for SAARC nations and other requests by the industry for further reduction in the visa processing fee as well, a development that was exclusively reported by this newspaper. The new online visa application procedure, effective from January 2012, allows for visitors to Sri Lanka to obtain their visas via the Internet without the hassle of going to a mission office.
Dr. Godahewa told the Business Times that this was carried out based on requests by the industry and that initially authorities intended to impose a US$100 for the visa processing fee. He assured the industry that the new visa system would be capable of handling the volumes that would come in at the beginning of next year.
Commenting on the tourism industry in Sri Lanka he said that it was almost ‘two years old’ as the authorities were starting afresh in gearing this sector towards becoming an economic driver. He pointed out that a structured plan is required to ensure that a greater number of people would benefit from it.
In this regard, Dr. Godahewa observed that the “beauty of tourism is that it is one industry where more people can benefit from it.”
However, interestingly, the industry just last week was quoted as saying that there were too many out there who intended on cashing in from tourism thereby killing the “golden goose that laid the golden egg.” |
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