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Tourism Ministry requests to reduce quarantine period

17 Feb 2021

By Zahida Rizvi   The Ministry of Tourism has sent a proposal to the Presidential Secretariat requesting to change the quarantine period from 14 days to 10 days for employees in hotels with a Covid-19-infected guests and also to remove the quarantine requirements if the hotel does not have any guests infected by Covid-19, The Morning Business learns. Speaking at the industry webinar for travel agents and the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) hosted by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), its Chairperson Kimarli Fernando said: “The request was made in an attempt to increase international tourist arrivals, since arrivals into Sri Lanka are recorded to be increasing from the GCC (Gulf Co-operation Council), Dubai, Qatar, Kuwait, Russian, Ukraine, and German markets, in particular for Ayurveda.” She said that Sri Lanka fairs slightly ahead in comparison to the Maldives in terms of the guest arrivals, which has been recorded to be 3,820 visitors into the country in the first two weeks since reopening. However, pointing out that tourists from the UK are currently not permitted to visit Sri Lanka due to the travel restrictions and that if this continues, it will prevent the market from yielding a bigger profit, Fernando urged the Ministry of Health to reconsider the ban. “We have roughly 991 travel agents; 304 applications were sent to be audited by KPMG and 113 passed the audit and were certified,” she said. According to her, the Authority has requested 50,000 vaccinations in an attempt to vaccinate all employees in the industry. “We have requested all Level 1 Safe and Secure hotels to provide their employee details to be submitted to the Ministry of Health this week,” she added. According to the Ministry of Health, tourists are required to obtain a visa online, along with a mandatory Covid-19 insurance cover costing $ 12, which covers $ 50,000 worth of hospital or medical bills for a month. Travellers also have to do PCR tests 96 hours prior to their arrival. The PCR test costs $ 40. The first test will be taken on arrival at their hotel, and the second after five to seven days or at the onset of symptoms. A third test is required for visitors staying between 10 and 14 days. Tourists are also required to pre-book a Safe and Secure-certified hotel for the first 14 days of their stay.


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