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TAAI signs MoU with SLAITO to promote tourism between India & Sri Lanka

With an aim to boost tourism between India and Sri Lanka, leading travel associations from both countries have come forward to sync up their marketing and promotional strategies.

Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO) to work on multiple tourism projects and initiatives to rejuvenate the tourism sector post the pandemic.

With carefully revised health protocols, Sri Lanka opened its borders for fully vaccinated Indian travellers in September this year. Speaking about the MoU, Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI said, “TAAI as an association has always had strong relations with Sri Lankan travel trade and we are more than happy to continue this relationship post-covid through this MoU. We intend to work in a collaborative manner to boost tourism through multiple marketing initiatives, promotions, virtual seminars and visits.”

Adding further, Jay Bhatia, Vice President, TAAI said, “TAAI and its members shall promote inbound into Sri Lanka in association with SLAITO and ensure appropriate information is parted to its members on marketing and promotions for the island destination.”

Indian travellers need to be fully vaccinated, with the second shot taken at least 14 days before heading to Sri Lanka. On arrival, travellers will go to their hotel, where the RT-PCR test will be conducted. Those who test negative can travel where they want to go. In case the results come back positive, the travellers will need to head to the hotels that have been transformed into health care centers. The great news is that Sri Lanka is accepting all Indian vaccines, including Covaxine which has not been recognised by many international destinations yet. 

To educate the Indian travel professionals and experts on the latest health protocols and travel-related advisories, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau in association with the Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Mumbai, organised a virtual awareness session in September. Sri Lanka Tourism has a target of achieving USD 10 billion income to the country, and a total of 7 million tourist arrivals by the year 2025, which is a challenging task due to the current pandemic situation impacting global tourism. Sri Lanka Tourism is taking all the necessary steps to achieve this target by 2025 or even to a closer level, with the planned promotional activities including the Global Campaign which is expected to be launched early next year

Sri Lanka’s tourism sector, which is one of the leading foreign exchange earners in the country, has been one of the worst affected by the raging pandemic, and the government is now looking at ways to revive it. An estimated 4 million people are directly and indirectly employed in the tourism sector in Sri Lanka.

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