As India’s outbound travel market gears up to reach $45 billion by 2032, there is a growing focus on high-spending travelers coming from the country.
Sri Lanka Offers Free Tourist Visa for Indians: India Report
25.10.2023 - 11:09 / skift.com / Peden Doma Bhutia
Under a pilot program, Sri Lanka will be issuing free tourist visas through next March to visitors from seven countries: India, China, Russia, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. This initiative is part of Sri Lanka’s broader strategy to revitalize its tourism sector and achieve a target of 5 million arrivals by 2026.
Sri Lanka’s Tourism Crisis: Sri Lanka’s tourism industry endured a severe blow due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which was followed by an economic crisis last year. However, there’s a positive shift in 2023, with the country welcoming 1 million arrivals by September, the first time since 2019. The island nation is expected to conclude the year with 1.5 million arrivals.
Source Markets: India stands as the largest source of tourists, contributing 200,310 arrivals, followed by Russia with 132,300, according to the latest data from the Sri Lanka Development Authority.
Tourism Revenue: Sri Lanka’s tourism revenue for the first eight months of 2023 reached $1.3 billion, a significant increase from $833 million during the same period the previous year, as reported by the central bank.
Set to start international services soon, Akasa Air, plans to go public by the end of the decade, CEO Vinay Dube told news agency PTI on Sunday.
Current Operations: Launched last year in August, Akasa Air, currently operates more than 750 weekly flights across 16 Indian destinations.
International Flights: The airline will soon start international operations as it has received flying rights for Riyadh and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Doha and Kuwait.
Fleet Expansion: With a current fleet of 20 aircraft, Akasa has also placed a firm order for 76 Boeing 737 MAX aeroplanes, set to join its fleet by mid-2027.
Akasa expects to have 25 aircraft by the end of this fiscal and expects to add 15 more aircraft by the end of the next financial year. By mid-2027, the airline expects to have 76 planes.
Dube said the airline is also looking to place an order for 100-plus aircraft before the end of 2023.
He said the airline is already generating free cash from operations and is well-funded for the new aircraft order.
“’I don’t think 2027 will be possible for a listing, but the listing is something that we definitely want to do. We may have to gather a little more history before we can list. Certainly, listing or an IPO is something that we would desire.”
Dube called a listing before the end of this decade a “much more realistic goal.”
Listed Indian Carriers: At present, there are two operational scheduled carriers publicly traded on the stock exchanges – Indigo and SpiceJet. Jet Airways, which ceased operations in April 2019 due to financial difficulties, is also listed. Go First, which closed down operations earlier this year, had
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