SL tourism set to get fresh Chinese boost

Sri Lanka tourism is slated to receive the much-needed boost from China, as it pledged support to revive the island nation’s tourism industry, thereby its economic recovery.

As China removed its long-standing strict Covid-19 protocols for its citizens, global travel is set to bounce back strongly.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China recently announced the launch of a pilot programme to resume Chinese outbound travel to selected destinations.

According to the Chinese Embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka has been included in the list of these destinations.
The programme will kick off on February 6 and will allow travel agencies to open outbound group travel for Chinese citizens to 20 nations. Alongside Sri Lanka, the other nations in China’s pilot programme list include Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, the Maldives, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Russia, Switzerland, Hungary, New Zealand, Fiji, Cuba and Argentina.

Taking to Twitter to share the news, the Chinese embassy in Colombo said the move is to “firmly support the tourism industry and economic recovery of Sri Lanka”.

With this, China will resume outbound travel after a hiatus of almost three years.
According to the notice by China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the authorities will instruct tour organisers to strictly adhere to official COVID-19 measures at home and abroad.