Sri Lanka approves free tourist visas to citizens of 35 countries

Sri Lanka's cabinet approved issuing free tourist visas to visitors from 35 countries including China, India and Russia, a top official said on Thursday, in an effort to boost tourism and help revive its crisis-hit economy, Reuters reports.

Tourists will be given 30-day visas under a six-month pilot program that will start from Oct. 1, said Cabinet spokesman and Transport Minister Bandula Gunawardana.

"The aim of the government is to transform Sri Lanka into a free visa country, much like Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam to tap into the benefits of a rapidly growing tourism industry," Gunawardana told reporters at a weekly cabinet briefing.

The extensive list includes India, China, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Australia, Denmark, Poland, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Nepal, Indonesia, Russia, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, and France.

The country of 22 million people, famed for its beaches, ancient temples and aromatic tea, saw its tourism industry pummeled first by the COVID-19 pandemic and then by a severe financial crisis in 2022 that saw mass scale protests and shortages of essentials such as fuel.

But the tourism industry is reaping the benefits of a turnaround that began last year with Sri Lanka clocking nearly 2 million arrivals by mid-August, for the first time since 2019.

The island nation is expecting to close the year at 2.3 million arrivals.