COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) – Sri Lanka was reopened to foreign tourists on Thursday after a ten-month closure of the pandemic, which cut deep into the lucrative travel industry of the Indian Ocean country.
Full operations were also resumed on Thursday at the island’s two international airports, which accommodate the commercial flights.
Under new protocols to prevent the spread of COVID-19, tourists must be tested for their virus in their country 72 hours before their flight, when they arrive at their hotel in Sri Lanka and again seven days later. They have to stay in a ‘travel bubble’ designated in 14 tourism zones without mixing with the locals. About 180 hotels are earmarked for tourist accommodation.
The resumption of tourism follows a pilot project that started on December 26 in which 1,500 tourists from Ukraine visited Sri Lanka in such a travel bubble.
The government closed the country to tourists last year when an outbreak of the virus surfaced. The international airports were closed, except for limited flights that allowed Sri Lankans to return home.
Tourism is an important economic sector for Sri Lanka, which accounts for about 5% of its gross domestic product and employs 250,000 people directly and up to 3 million indirectly. Hotels, other businesses and their employees have experienced crippling revenue losses.
Sri Lanka had fewer than 4,000 cases of coronavirus infection until October when bunches spread to a clothing factory and fish market in the capital Colombo and its suburbs. As of Thursday, it has confirmed more than 55,000 cases with 274 deaths.
In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:
People traveling to Australia from most countries on Friday should test the coronavirus negatively before leaving. Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt said on Thursday that he had signed orders requiring international travelers to undergo a negative test within three days of leaving for Australia. All international passengers must also wear masks on their flights. “The success at home, the tormenting challenges abroad, the fact that our new, more virulent tribes are popping up around the world, remind us of exactly why we were able to keep Australians safe,” Hunt told reporters in Melbourne. New Zealand and some Pacific countries have been released from the new rules.
China is setting some of its toughest travel restrictions to date as coronavirus cases increase in several northern provinces ahead of the rush to the new lunar year. Next month’s festival is the most important time of the year for family gatherings and is often the only time many migrant workers can return to their rural homes. However, anyone who wants to do this this year will need a negative virus test within the previous week and in some communities sometimes experience restrictive restrictions, including quarantines. The National Health Commission on Thursday reported an additional 126 cases of local transmission over the past 24 hours, the largest number, 68, in the northern province of Heilongjiang, part of the sprawling region formerly known as Manchuria. Commission spokesman Mi Feng also said that international experts visiting Wuhan had video conferences with Chinese experts as part of their work. The World Health Organization is in quarantine at the beginning of its journey to investigate the origin of the virus. Chinese officials have strictly controlled such research, while promoting fringe theories about the cause of the virus.