Veteran hotelier, Chairman, Theme Resorts and Spa, Chandra Wickremesinghe said that it would be a good idea for the new management of Sri Lanka Tourism to have a joint destination marketing promotion with SriLankan Airlines rather than both working on their own.
“This would be more productive for both parties.”
He said in many countries this joint effect is very successfully launched and sighted Thai Airways for Thailand, Air France for France and Emirate for UAE.
Wickremesinghe also said that while SriLankan should try to launch more flights or increase capacity to European destinations the country must also try to woo airlines like British Airways, KLM and Lufthansa to fly direct to Colombo.
He said the tourism industry suffered a great deal due to the implementation of the VFS visa system instead of the ETA system and thanked the new government for reintroducing this ETA system within days of them being elected. “This will definitely boost arrivals. This proved that it was blocked by a former Minister even after it got Cabinet approval to move back to the ETA system.”
He said that the industry is now waiting to see the implementation of the extension of ‘free visa on arrival’ from the current seven countries to 38 countries for which Cabinet approval was granted. “Here again, the same Minster blocked out this productive decision stating that it has to be ratified by Parliament.”
The new President and the government must explore the possibility of implementing the free online visa system earlier as possible for the proposed 38 countries for which Cabinet approval was given earlier.
“There may be a system to bypass parliament using executive powers vested with the President and extend the visa for 38 countries system as soon as possible since the next parliament meeting will take place after more than a month,” said Wickremesinghe.
