Boxing Day trials fixed
View(s):Opening an island for tourists has become a daunting task as health and tourism authorities are still working on the modalities and the date when commercial operations could commence is yet to be finalized.
During an official meeting of all stakeholders held on Friday there has been discussion on the modalities to be followed in opening up for tourists through charter flights commencing December 26.
The first charter flight is set to bring down a group of Russian tourists and it is likely that there will be another group arriving on a charter flight from Germany although dates have not been fixed for the latter. The Russian group is learnt to be staying at a number of selected beach properties and former Sri Lankan Ambassador to Russia, Udayanga Weeratunga is said to be organising this group.
Health authorities through this pilot project will be working together with tourism authorities to understand how they could open up for commercial operations that authorities are hoping could take place by mid-January.
Though charter flights are allowed to bring down tourists until the official date for commercial operations is set, the industry notes that this is hard to carry out since bringing down charter flights takes some time to organise before finalizing dates of the arrival. (SD)