POREG VIEW: There is some confusion. One report attributed to Immigration and Emigration Controller General, WA Chulananda Perera said, Sri Lanka has decided not to issue visas to Indian tourists on arrival since India is not offering such facility to SL visitors. Another report also attributed to the very same official maintained that here is no decision as such but the government is mulling a proposal to this effect and it would be effective next month (August).
The denial of on arrival visa will hit arrivals in all from 78 countries; but worst sufferers will be Indians who constitute the single largest block among foreign tourists to the country. Singapore and Maldives, who also send significant numbers need no worry because their countries give on-arrival visas to Lankans and therefore will enjoy reciprocal facility,’’
According to official data, between January and May this year, 68,830 Indians visited the emerald island to visit mostly placed associated with Ramayana. This represents a 54.5 percent jump in arrivals from India over the same period last year. British tourists came second with their number growing 7.1 percent to 41,474 in the first five months of this year.
But it is Pakistani tourists who have registered an astounding 98.1 per cent increase. But the actual number of arrivals at 6,027 is no where near the Indians. Most of these Pakistanis appear to have visited Sri Lanka to watch cricket matches, according to officials. At least a significant percentage of them could be business men and politicians of all hues reflecting the upswing in the bilateral relations between the two countries.
Around 650,000 tourists arrived in Sri Lanka in 2010, and the figure is expected to increase by 100,000 this year. Sri Lanka has been granting Western tourists as well as those from developed nations a 30-day visa on arrival since the 1970s in order to promote tourism. The scheme has been extended to SAARC in the mid 1990s to tap the South Asian market for more tourist revenue, one of the key foreign exchange earners for Sri Lanka.
This talk about no visa on arrival to Indians was heard toward 2010 end. A public announcement was also made some time in November. But soon, the President ordered that the scheme be put on hold as the tourism industry feared a drop in visitor arrivals. In a world that is increasingly guided by market economics, small countries like Sri Lanka should go all out to woo tourists and not place impediments on the way of the few who think of flying into Kandy or Colombo which don’t boast of world class hotel rooms in plenty.
Religious tourism or what has come to be appreciated as Ramayana trial that takes the visitors to places which are etched in popular memory, for instance, the place where Ravana held Sita in captivity, is a big draw with the Indians. Sri Lankan tourism officials went around India holding road shows and appearing on the TV some time ago in order to highlight the attractions that are awaiting a visitor. Even before this campaign has begun to show results, thinking of doing away with facilities that make travel easy is not being tourist friendly.
Sri Lankan High Commissioner in India Prasad Kariyaswasam is missing the woods for the trees when he says that his government would be introducing ‘online visa’ facility soon and it would be an alternative to the visa-on-arrival.
