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Sri Lanka welcomes first tourists since pandemic shutdown
After a long eight months of border closures, Sri Lanka has welcomed its first groups of tourists.
Two groups of travellers from the Ukraine have now arrived in the past two days under a pilot program to restart the country’s tourism sector.
Under a ‘bio-bubble’ they are able to visit designated tourist spots.
On arrival the visitors underwent PCR Covid tests before being transported to designated hotels.
They will all be tested again over the next few days.
The pilot project will run until late January, Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said.
About 2,500 tourists will be arriving under the program over the next two weeks, mainly from CIS countries.
Sri Lanka closed its borders in March and eased lockdowns in mid-May. It had planned to reopen inbound tourism earlier this year but was hit with a second wave of Covid infections.
The minister said if the pilot proves to be a success with no further spike in infections, airports will open again for scheduled flight services.
"This is a great start. The national carrier too will promote tourism and encourage foreign visitors with the government agreeing to extend us the same guidelines to our passengers," said SriLankan Airlines Chairman Ashok Pathirage.
Written by Ray Montgomery, Asia Editor
TravelMole Editorial Team
Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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