Sri Lanka has decided to provide free visa access to 35 countries including India from October 1, Sri Lanka-based Daily Mirror reported citing Harin Fernando, the advisor to the Sri Lankan Ministry of Tourism. The list of nations includes 34 other nations besides India.

Some of the major names include the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Israel, New Zealand, Nepal, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and Australia. Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, Ali Sabry appreciated the development and called it the first step towards a visa-free regime.

“First steps towards a visa-free regime!” Sri Lankan FM stated in a post on X. In a subsequent post, Sabry shared data from Sri Lankan Tourism Authority showing rise in tourism in the country.

According to the data, pre-Covid tourism stood at 2,333,796 in 2018 and 1,913,702 in 2019 which slumped in the pandemic years. The recent data show that tourism in Sri Lanka has resurged to 1,487,303 in 2023 and 1,315,884 in 2024 so far.

Sri Lankan FM affirmed hope that the island nation will achieve the pre-Covid level in tourism. “We are well on course to achieve the pre covid level. @Sri Lanka can – Sri Lanka will!” he stated. Notably, Sri Lanka will go to the polls to elect a new president on September 21.

Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the eighth President of Sri Lanka in July 2022, when then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned from the post. He announced his candidature for the presidential polls in July.

However, ahead of the presidential polls, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), the biggest party in the parliament, decided not to back President Ranil Wickremesinghe and instead put up its own candidate.

Notably, SLPP is the party associated with the Rajapaksa brothers, who held most of the major power positions in the government until a few years ago.(ANI)