India and Sri Lanka further promotes bilateral tourism

Deputy High Commissioner of India in Sri Lanka Vinod K. Jacob has highlighted the strong people-to- people and cultural ties between India and Sri Lanka ensuring that these ties will be further strengthened, a media release issued by the Indian Embassy in Colombo revealed.   

He spoke at the presentation on Ramayana Trails organised by Sri Lanka – India Society and Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau at Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre, Colombo on March 10.

India is ready to welcome tourists again and considers Sri Lanka as an important source market for tourism. To encourage tourism, Government of India had recently suspended the RT-PCR test requirement for travellers who are fully vaccinated and announced the resumption of international commercial flights from 27th March 2022. 

He noted that despite the COVID-19 related restrictions in 2021, 194,495 tourists arrived in Sri Lanka, out of which 56,268 were from India which translates into about 29 per cent of total arrivals. However, it was highlighted that efforts should be made by the Sri Lankan side to increase these numbers.

The Deputy High Commissioner said that in the last two months, 7,682 tourists from Sri Lanka had visited India, while 196 had travelled for medical purposes.

He also said that it was a good time for Sri Lankans of all walks of life to benefit from opportunities available in India; and in this regard, referred to examples of Sri Lankan cricketers in the Indian Premier League, artists in Bollywood and other creative personalities and investors

In this connection, he mentioned the establishment of the air bubble arrangement between India and Sri Lanka in April 2021, holding of the third Joint Working Group Meeting on Tourism and the inaugural flight from Sri Lanka to Kushinagar airport in October 2021.

 
The programme included presentation to the audience on prominent sites linked with Ramayana in Sri Lanka, which would be of interest to Indian tourists.