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Tourists could come to the south, east and northwest from next month; under health guidelines
The Government is planning to open the country’s borders for tourists, but will confine them to coastal areas in the south, east and the northwest of the country.
The details on reopening of the country for the tourism sector were discussed on Friday at a meeting presided over by Basil Rajapaksa who has been appointed to chair the Presidential Task Force in charge of Economic Revival and Poverty Eradication.
The Health Ministry has been told to draft the required health guidelines.
The moves come in the wake of intense lobbying by the tourism sector because of heavy losses incurred over the years, especially this COVID-19-hit year.
An estimated revenue loss of US$ 2.7 billion (Rs 500 billion) is feared this year alone.
Accordingly, plans are being drawn to allow tourists from selected countries from the second week of January. They will use the Mattala airport and stay in one of designated 58 hotels, a senior Tourism Ministry official said.
The visiting tourists will be required to arrive with a PCR negative test report obtained seven hours before boarding the flight and will be allowed to land only at the Mattala International airport.
“They will be able to directly visit the designated hotel instead of waiting at the airport for a second PCR test. At the hotel, a selected private hospital will carry out a second PCR test for the visitors and the guests will be required to stay in the hotel for the next seven days,” the official explained.
After seven days, they will be allowed to move out, but that too in specified groups to selected locations.
Under the plan, southern coast, Batticaloa and Trincomalee hotels have been selected for tourists to stay.
The guests would be allowed to use only the beach during the first week while the army would be deployed to prevent the entry of locals into these tourist areas, he said.
The official said strict guidelines would also be enforced for hotel staff and they would not be able to leave the hotel and return home while the hotel was being used by tourists.
The country was being opened for tourists as a pilot project and adjustments including increasing the number of tourists would be decided according to the results achieved, he said.
“The number of tourists to be allowed will also depend on how many PCR tests could be carried out by the private sector,” the official said.
In the event of the detection of a COVID-19 positive case they would be required to obtain treatment at the Neville Fernando Hospital or the Kothalawala Defence Hospital by making the required payments.
Present at the discussions were Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga and officials representing the Tourism, Health and Foreign Ministries.
Earlier this week Minister Ranatunga during the budget debate of his ministry explained the setbacks suffered in the industry due to the COVID-19 crisis.
He said the country had been hoping to get seven million tourists during this year, but was unable to do so due to the COVID-19 crisis.