Travel warning, uncertainty on promos, visas on arrival
The tourism industry is battling on despite a litany of concerns that keeps getting new issues added on as a severe drop in arrivals is evident with the latest setback being the US travel warning against Sri Lanka.
Authorities are raising concerns that with the Presidential election and subsequently a possible dissolution of Parliament matters related to the issuance of visas online and free visas and holding of the promotional campaigns could get delayed.
Already the US has issued a Level 2 travel warning on September 12 against Sri Lanka asking their nationals to exercise increased caution in view of the Presidential election as there is the possibility of civil unrest and terror attacks in the wake of the election.
In this respect authorities remain concerned that there could be other countries that could issue similar travel warnings resulting in a disruption to the already severe drop in tourist arrivals to the country.
At present the industry is witnessing 4100 arrivals per day whereas expectations were to achieve 5500 – 6000 arrivals per day.
The Presidential Secretariat has been requested to immediately activate the ETA service, activate the e-platform and increase the number of immigration counters at the Bandaraniake International Airport (BIA) in a bid to ensure the free visas can be issued according to the cabinet decision taken in this respect.
Inspite of the increase in the number of counters at the BIA the Immigration Department has not assigned the required number of personnel to man these counters, Airport Manager at the BIA stated at the first meeting held by the special committee to look into the implementation of the free visas to over 30 countries.
This committee was to be co-chaired by the Secretary to the Ministry of Tourism and the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security; however the latter did not participate. It includes Senior Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Controller General of Immigration who was represented by another official since he was overseas, the Civil Aviation Authority and the State Intelligence Service, the Airport Manager from the Airport and Aviation Services Ltd., and the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority chairman. The committee established in August met for the first time on Wednesday to ascertain how best to implement the issuance of free visas from October 1.
The Airport Manager noted that they had already increased the number of counters by about 10 or 12 but they are not being manned by Immigration officers. The increase in the number of counters can help to reduce the blockage and send a positive message to the world.
In the meantime, the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau is in a dilemma as to what the ground situation might be and whether it would be conducive or not to carry out promotional campaigns lined up.
Meanwhile, it is learnt that the 60-odd officers trained to run the operations at the VFS Global service in the issuing of visas have been terminated.
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