TRAVEL AGENTS WARNED ON TOURIST ARRIVALS

TRAVEL AGENTS TO LOSE LICENSES IF GUIDELINES ARE VIOLATED

by Zulfick Farzan 14-01-2021 | 3:16 PM

Colombo (News 1st); The Ministry of Tourism said Travel Agents who fail to follow the health guidelines when bringing in foreign travelers to Sri Lanka, would have their licenses canceled.

S. Hettiarachchi, the Secretary to the Ministry of Tourism said plans are in place to ensure there is no further development of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka when foreign travelers are brought in.

Recently Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said that the two main airports Bandaranaike International Airport (Colombo) and Mattala International Airport (Hambantota) will reopen starting 21 January and international flights will resume gradually starting 23 January.

S. Hettiarachchi, the Secretary to the Ministry of Tourism said any airline can fly to Sri Lanka with India and Germany scheduled to resume flights to the country.

He said social distancing will be mandatory for all tourists entering Sri Lanka and mingling with locals is discouraged as well.

Sri Lanka started taking baby steps towards reopening its borders, starting 28 December, under a pilot project, as it started taking tourists in controlled groups.

The first set of tourists arrived on a charter flight from Ukraine.