The Hon. (Prof.) Ruwan Ranasinghe - Deputy Minister of Tourism
In response to Question 1311/2025, the Deputy Minister of Tourism provided arrival and departure figures between Sri Lanka and the Maldives from 2022 to 2024, showing increases in both Sri Lankans travelling to the Maldives and Maldivian tourists visiting Sri Lanka. He stated that the Maldivian visa-on-arrival facility for Sri Lankans offers a 90-day stay without prior visa requirements or fees, supporting travel, business, education, medical, leisure, economic, and cultural links. He also noted that Sri Lanka grants Maldivian visitors a reciprocal 90-day tourist visa on arrival without fees, and that the remaining part of the question was not applicable.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 In reply to Question 1311/2025:
¶ 02 (a) (i) Arrivals/Departures:
¶ 03 - 2022: Sri Lankans to Maldives 93,406; Maldivian tourists to Sri Lanka 18,880 - 2023: Sri Lankans to Maldives 110,680; Maldivian tourists to Sri Lanka 37,328 - 2024: Sri Lankans to Maldives 289,330; Maldivian tourists to Sri Lanka 103,430
¶ 04 (ii) Benefits to Sri Lanka from visa on arrival for Sri Lankans visiting Maldives: - Facilitates travel with 90-day visa on arrival, removing pre-visa requirements and fees, saving time and cost. - Encourages short visits, business meetings, education exchanges, medical travel, and leisure. - Strengthens economic and trade ties, creating new business opportunities. - Enhances cultural and social linkages.
¶ 05 (iii) No.
¶ 06 (iv) Maldivians visiting Sri Lanka are also granted a 90-day tourist visa on arrival without fees.
¶ 07 (b) Not applicable.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Friday, 20 March 2026 ·No. 23396 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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Cite as: The Hon. (Prof.) Ruwan Ranasinghe - Deputy Minister of Tourism. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 20 March 2026. No. 23396. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/8372