Parliament on Wednesday approved regulations under the Immigration and Emigration Act granting free visa entry to travellers from 40 countries, clearing one of the central planks of the government’s plan to boost tourist arrivals.
Daily FT, reporting the parliamentary vote on its Friday front page, said the approval came “after much delay” and paves the way for visitors from the listed countries to enter Sri Lanka without paying a visa fee. The list and the conditions of stay were set out in regulations gazetted under the Immigration and Emigration Act, the legal instrument that governs all visa categories.
The decision formalises a scheme that the Cabinet had announced in earlier rounds, and extends it by one country to 40. It is part of a wider tourism strategy that has also included the Sri Pada cable-car proposal and reforms at the Bureau of Foreign Employment, with the government targeting a sharp recovery in arrivals after Cyclone Ditwah and the Iran war hit the sector.
Tourism arrivals dropped 19 percent in March under the Hormuz disruption, before stabilising in April. Tier-1 source markets covered by the free-visa scheme include the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, Japan and India, the largest origin markets for Sri Lankan tourism. Industry bodies have lobbied for the visa-fee waiver since late 2025 on the argument that even modest fees deter short-haul leisure travellers comparing Sri Lanka with regional rivals.
Source: Daily FT.
