Foreigners watching the ongoing cricket Test match between Sri Lanka versus New Zealand in Galle
PIC BY KUSHAN PATHIRAJA

Sri Lanka’s tourism sector stakeholders yesterday gave a thumbs up to the government for ironing out the issues related to the issuance of visas, which was beginning to negatively impact the industry.
The Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO) and The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) expressed their delight that the previous Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) system has been reinstated by the Immigration and Emigration Department, which will enable tourists to obtain an ETA to visit the island with ease. 
The ETA platform, which was in operation since 2012 and was hailed as being one of the most efficient and effective in the region and helped tourism growth, was abruptly stopped and a new system with VFS was introduced in April 2024. This change has had a huge negative impact on tourist arrivals to the country to date. 
“We are confident this will create a positive outcome and we can expect a surge in tourist arrivals in the coming months,” it said in a joint statement.
With appeals going unheard for over two months, the key industry associations and individuals filed fundamental rights petitions in the Supreme Court, in late July 2024. 
The Supreme Court gave a directive in August 2024 to reinstate the ETA system that was operational prior to April 17, 2024. 
However, there was an undue delay in the Supreme Court order being carried out, which created a lot of confusion and revenue loss to the country, as a result of the severe decline in tourist arrivals that followed, due to the lack of an online platform to obtain an ETA. 
The associations in the statement appreciated the efforts of the Committee on Public Finance for exposing this issue back in May/June and to some of its members, for going to the Supreme Court, resulting in the issuance of the interim order, nearly two months ago. 
“On behalf of the tourism industry, we are indeed very thankful to the president, (to whom we wrote on this matter earlier this week) and the minister for public security for ensuring that the Supreme Court order was carried out without any delay, no sooner they assumed office,” the associations highlighted in its statement.
Tourism is the number one net foreign exchange earner for the country and over 10 percent of the country’s population is dependent on this industry.