SLTDA signals green light for travel in Kandy

Friday, 9 March 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) yesterday announced that tourists could resume their travel plans to Kandy as the situation in the administrative district had improved and the area was fast returning to normalcy.

“No violent incident has been reported from the district in the last 18 hours. Accordingly, the curfew has been lifted by the Police and tourists can resume their travel plans to Kandy,” stated an SLTDA update on its website (www.sltda.lk/emergency) at 2.00 p.m. yesterday.

However, the Police later announced that curfew would be imposed in the Kandy administrative district from 6.00 p.m. yesterday to 6.00 a.m. today.

The tourism authorities and industry stakeholders implemented a mechanism with the local Police authorities to facilitate the issuance of passes for tourists who choose to move out of the Kandy administrative district from Wednesday.

“There were few curfew passes issued to tourists by Police in the Kandy administrative district following our request. Around 12 passes were issued from the Kandy police station, 10 from Katugastota and six from Peradeniya,” SLTDA Chairman Kavan Ratnayake told the Daily FT.

The webpage update said Police would also allow tourists to use their passports as a curfew pass in the Kandy administrative district if the need presented itself.

Ratnayaka assured that Sri Lanka Tourism continues to work with all industry stakeholders to ensure tourists’ safety and security as they travel throughout Sri Lanka.

However, the authority added that the situation in Kandy had no impact whatsoever on other parts of the country and daily activities took place smoothly outside the Kandy District.