Sri Lanka: The Best Post-Coronavirus Travel Destination. Here's Why.

Even though there are some countries still on an uphill battle against the Coronavirus, many other countries are easing lockdown rules and gradually encouraging people to resume work. Some countries, such as Italy, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka had gone one step further and laid plans to open borders to resume tourism. The timeline they are looking at falls around July, and according to the chairperson of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, their destination management companies already started getting travel inquiries from various parts of the world. Travelers will still have to go through a security, health, and hygiene check as part of the entry process, and hoteliers will have to abide by new health and hygiene regulations enforced by local governments.

Why Sri Lanka?

The primary reason to pick Sri Lanka as the top post-coronavirus destination is the way they managed and contain the spread of COVID-19. Sri Lankan government foresaw the threat and took early measures to control inbound travel and soon after closed the airport, for some selected countries first, then to the entire world. Being an island nation Sri Lanka could control anything that comes from outside. Next, the healthcare sector, together with the support of military staff, started quarantine centers in every part of the country and used intelligence services to trace contacts of everyone who got infected and sent for quarantine. The government ran this operation for nearly 2 months and by the time the curfew lifted, Sri Lanka had only 950 infected cases and 9 deaths. That is by far the best COVID-19 management and contain effort in the world, given the population and death rate. A comprehensive paper was published by Sri Lanka's State Intelligence Service on how they combat COVID-19. All in all, this is the most encouraging fact for travelers to build up faith in the government and the systems in place, and visit Sri Lanka.

Another reason to pick Sri Lanka as the top post-pandemic destination is the set of strict regulations the government had placed and going to enforce at the airport and hotels to guarantee the safety, health, and hygiene of tourists. The government is very concerned about these processes and regulations and the hoteliers were given some strict rules to abide when hosting visitors. One might indeed see these rules and regulations as a double-edged sword because if you have too many regulations, it'll affect the peace of mind and the experience, therefore maintaining the right balance is critical. The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority stressed this fact many times and they're well aware of the post-pandemic mindset of tourists and understand that people come to Sri Lanka not just to spend too much time indoors.

Sri Lanka has a public healthcare system and anyone can go to a hospital to admit or consult a doctor anytime. Even though the service is completely free of charge for citizens, there's a little charge for tourists. It was free for everyone until last December, and the laws are changed now. Sri Lanka also has an indigenous medical system that was developed and evolved over thousands of years. The majority of the local people are still using these medicine and it is said that Sri Lankans naturally have strong immune systems because of that. Maybe the fact that the country is located closer to the equator and heavy exposure to the natural sunlight might have given Sri Lankans enough vitamin D to develop strong immune systems. Either way, Sri Lankans have more than one way to maintain the health. With the reopening of tourism experts are expecting a high demand for these indigenous medicines from tourists and a new industry is booming to productize these herbal medicines.

By now we hope you have enough health and hygiene-related facts to pick the best post-coronavirus destination. But apart from health and hygiene there are many other reasons to visit this beautiful island. Sri Lanka has a history that goes well beyond several thousand years. 6 cultural sites out of 8 UNESCO protected sites in Sri Lanka belong to the "cultural triangle" where tourists can see the ruins of the ancient capital cities, the Sigiriya rock citadel, and the sacred city of Kandy. Not only the cultural cities, but there are many protected wildlife sanctuaries where you can hop on a jeep and take a game drive to see the elusive Sri Lankan leopard and many other animal varieties, take a hike in the Singharaja rain forest, which is a wet zone pristine forest where you can see many bird verities including the ones that are endemic to Sri Lanka, enjoy the golden sand beaches, see the largest land and marine mammals within a 3-hour window, take a plane ride over the misty mountains, enjoy traditional Sri Lankan food, meet lovely local people who are modest, hospitable and take pride in inviting people to their homes, and the list goes on forever.

Sri Lanka needs your help. The tourism industry accounts for nearly 13% of GDP and contributes to nearly 10% of national employment. Coronavirus pandemic was a hard hit for the economy as well as livelihoods. With borders open, the whole country is waiting to welcome you. There's no better time than now to extend your heart and soul to the people of Sri Lanka.