For a textbook example of how to create the right environment for tourism to take off, we need look no further than Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan Airlines was privatised a couple of years ago and is now rapidly expanding under part-owner Emirates’ direction. There has been a quick transfer of marketing expertise, with the same eye-catching promotions along with leading hotels in Sri Lanka that Emirates has used to stimulate traffic so successfully to Dubai.
Colombo airport, meanwhile, hums with something approaching Singaporean efficiency. I came through inbound immigration in five minutes. By contrast, I was in an outbound immigration queue on my last flight out of Mumbai for over an hour. (Airports like Heathrow, incidentally, have done away with checking passports of people departing from the country.) Best of all, since February, Indian visitors to Sri Lanka don’t need a visa for short stays.
