Minister of Tourism and Lands, Sports and Youth Affairs Harin Fernando said that Sri Lanka’s current free visa system for Indian tourists is expected to be extended again after the coming month of March.
“India is our number one source market and tourists from India helped our country on its way out of the recent crisis we faced,” Fernando said in a session at OTM 2024.
Sri Lanka has facilitated visa-free entry for Indian tourists from December to March 2023. We are working on extending it beyond March. We want to make Sri Lanka an easily accessible destination for Indians who can walk into our country for a hassle-free vacation,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Indian Minister of External Affairs S. Jayashankar recently said that Sri Lanka is the state with the best facilities for Indians to visit.
Equally Indian tourists visit Maldives in large numbers. But the new president of Maldives, Mohamed Muisu, is in a strong pro-China position and is focusing on building close relations with China. So India is discouraging its citizens from going to Maldives.
Due to this situation, it will be a fruitful decision to further extend the free visa policy for Indians in Sri Lanka.