Major boost for local tourism sector with India’s UPI services launch

Sri Lanka’s tourism industry will receive a major boost with the launch of India’s most popular digital payment method Unified Payment Interface (UPI) services in Sri Lanka today, enabling Indian tourists to make payments in Indian Rupees (INR). 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi , Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth are expected to witness the launch of UPI services in Sri Lanka  and Mauritius in the afternoon via video conferencing.

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is an instant real-time payment system developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The interface facilitates inter-bank peer-to-peer and person-to-merchant transactions. 
It’s currently India’s most used digital payments method, cornering over 60 percent of the market. The proliferation of UPI has attracted global UPI collaboration, with India inking pacts with over 17 countries including France, Australia, Singapore, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Nepal, Mauritius and Bhutan.

“The launch will enable availability of UPI settlement services for Indian nationals travelling to Sri Lanka and Mauritius as well as for Mauritian nationals travelling to India,” India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.

Sri Lanka identified UPI as a key component in the country’s tourism strategy to boost both tourist arrivals and revenue from India, which is currently the largest tourism source market

“India being one of our main tourism (source) markets, the ability for Indian tourists to make payment in their own currency,  for tourism and other services in Sri Lanka, going forward, will no doubt, be a huge boost to the industry. SLAITO is indeed pleased with this development,” SLAITO President Nishad Wijetunga told Mirror Business. 
 Ahead of the launch, Minister of Foreign Affairs also highlighted that UPI launch would facilitate to increase tourism.

The SLTDA and Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) officials were not immediately available to comment on this development at the time of the publication. However, SLTDA Chairman Priyantha Fernando has been a vocal supporter of both Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and RuPay card.

UPI will be integrated with Sri Lanka’s LankaPay which  would allow Indians travelling to Sri Lanka to make payments using UPI at over 450,000 locations that support LankaQR. 
In November last year,  teams from LankaPay and India’s NIPL demonstrated successfully how a UPI-enabled payment app PhonePe could scan a LankaQR code and make a payment. 

In addition, this launch is set to benefit a wide cross-section of people through a faster and seamless digital transaction experience and enhance digital connectivity between the countries. Overall, UPI payments have the potential to have positive impact on the economy by reducing the costs of financial transactions, enabling a more convenient method to transact and driving financial inclusion.