Sri Lanka scraps visa on arrival for 78 countries

All short term visitors and transit passengers to Sri Lanka have to obtain online visa, the Immigration and Emigration Department announced here on Monday. Except for visitors from Singapore and Maldives, the two countries that reciprocate the facility with Sri Lanka, the new system will scrap the previously implemented "on arrival visa" at the ports of entry. The Electronic Travel Authorization has been introduced to grant prior approval for visa via online for foreign nationals from 78 countries. Controller of the Immigration and Emigration W.A.C Perera told media that foreign nationals visiting the country on purposes of tourism affairs, medical treatment, sports, cultural shows, business conferences, training programs and seminars can apply for the Electronic Travel Authorization via www.eta.gov.lk established by the department. Sri Lanka, which is experiencing a tourist boom since the end of a three decade war in 2009 is expecting 950,000 travelers this year. The government has ambitious plans to increase this to 2.5 million tourists by 2016. Already top resorts including Sheraton, Shangri-La and in its latest attraction Sun City of South Africa have pledged nearly 2 billion U.S. dollars for large scale hotels. Approval is also being processed for over 100 smaller hotels that are expected to commence construction in 2012.