Sri Lanka reopens borders to tourists from 21st January

Sri Lanka will reopening its airports for foreign tourists from January 21, following a successful pilot programme to assess the country’s capability in managing tourists under a bio bubble amid the pandemic, with the expectation of bringing a maximum of 2,500 travelers to the country per day, according to Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga.

Minister Ranatunga emphasized that every possible step has been taken to prevent the spread of Covid-19 from the tourists arriving to the community and vice versa.

Speaking to heads of media organisations on Monday (18) , he said that the relevant health guidelines have been prepared and issued to all stakeholders.

Under the bio bubble, all arriving travellers must stay in one of 40 certified hotels for the first 14 days of their trip. These hotels will not accept any local guests nor local events. After this period, travellers are free to move to their hotel of choice and mingle with locals.

He said that locals will allowed to the ‘Safe & Secure’ Certified Level 1 hotels and that the places where tourists can travel within the bio-bubble have already been identified. 

While tourists do not need to undergo mandatory quarantine, they have to abide by a strict set of rules. Travellers must obtain their visas online along with confirmed hotel booking, pre-purchased PCR tests and mandatory Covid-19 insurance coverage of US$50,000 on hospitalisation or medical bills for a month. They must also produce a valid PCR test taken 96 hours before arrival. However Vaccination will not exempt travellers from these health and safety protocols.

These protocols were issued by the Ministry of Health and adopted by Sri Lanka Tourism after a thorough analysis of the situation and following multiple consultations with all relevant stakeholders and health professionals to ensure a smooth transition to begin operations in the midst of this new normal. 
 
As per the safety protocols published Sri Lanka does not require a minimum number of days to stay. i.e. visitors to the island can stay even 3 to 4 days. Also offers ‘Quarantine free’ visitor experience where the visitors are allowed to enjoy all facilities in their respective hotels including the swimming pools, spas, gym etc. This time period travellers are restricted to only 14 attractions and tourist sites.

With the reopening of Sri Lanka’s borders, scheduled flights by key airlines such as SriLankan Airlines, Emirates and Singapore Airlines will resume from January 21.

Sri Lanka Tourism officials said the first arriving tourists were likely to be a group of Germans who would come through Bandaranaike International Airport