Sri Lankan tourism industry was vocal in protest against changed visa norms
Sri Lanka recorded a total of 164,609 foreign tourists in August, a growth of 20.7 pc over the same month in 2023, according to data released by Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. In the first eight months of 2024, the country received over 1.36 million international tourists, as compared to 1.49 million visitors from January to December in 2023.
Though this marks a relatively healthy growth of 45 pc year-on-year, Priantha Fernando, Chairman, SLTDA told local media that the tourist arrivals for the month of September are below expectations and the situation in the coming period ‘does not look good’.
“Unfortunately, the visa issue has created many issues and could be a reason for the below-expected level of arrivals. The numbers will dwindle further in the coming days,” Fernando was cited as saying.
After years of tumult, first pandemic-related and then political which saw the ouster of a President, international tourism in Sri Lanka had moved to smart growth earlier this year, with the island nation recording over 100 pc rise in monthly arrivals in first two months of the year, compared to the same months last year. The growth continued to be robust in March-April, recording over 66 pc and 41 pc respectively.
Then in May, in a sudden move the government changed the visa process and awarded the visa processing to a consortium led by VFS Global. The system, which was rolled out without consultation with the industry stakeholders, made the visa-obtaining process for international travellers more expensive and difficult, as it was not user-friendly.
This led to a dramatic fall in visitor numbers which grew by a marginal 13 pc in June. Though the Sri Lankan Supreme Court ordered suspension of the contract awarded to the consortium and restoration of the previous system, this is yet to happen, leading to a negative impact on tourism industry.
The situation has failed to improve in September as SLTDA’s provisional data shows that for the first 11 days of September, the tourist arrivals recorded just under 45,000, totalling 44,977. The daily arrival average dropped to 4,088, almost the same as in 2023.
SLTDA says that India remains the largest market, with about 19.6 pc of arrivals in September, while the United Kingdom and Germany are second and third largest markets.