Thai travel agents have requested Minister of Tourism John Amaratunga to introduce visa on arrival for Thai tourists to Sri Lanka to increase arrivals, pointing out that outbound traffic from Thailand to Japan increased by over one million when Japan granted visa on arrival to Thai nationals. This request has been made at a meeting between the Sri Lankan delegation and the President of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, Vichat Prakobgosol on the sidelines of the Thai International Travel Fair 2019 held in Bangkok, Thailand last week.

The inauguration of the Travel Fair was held at the Bangkok Convention Center at Central World Bangkok followed by a gala dinner at Centara Grand. The event was attended by over 500 tourism stake holders from around the world including Sri Lanka, the Ministry of Tourism announced in a press release.

"The Chief Guest at the inauguration was the Tourism Minister of Thailand while the Guest of Honour was the Tourism Minister of Sri Lanka, John Amaratunga, who received an enthusiastic welcome from the capacity crowd that was present," the release stated.

Later on Minister Amaratunga declared opened the Sri Lanka Booth, which was the cynosure at the travel fair. Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau made use of the opportunity to launch a promotional microsite highlighting the Buddhist trail in Sri Lanka, consisting of the main Buddhist tourism attractions in the country, meditation centers and facilities available to learn Buddhism in Sri Lanka.

The microsite was launched by Minister Amaratunga along with Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Thailand, Kshenuka Seneviratne, President of the Thai Travel Agents Association, Thanaphon Cheewarattanaporn and Chairman, Tourism Advisory Committee, Harry Jayawardena.