France relaxes travel advisory on Sri Lanka

August 18, 2022 at 1:13 PM

The Government of France has revised the travel advisory that was issued on Sri Lanka.

The revised travel advisory has been scaled down from “recommending only essential travel” to “exercise caution.”

The travel advisory has been revised a day after President Ranil Wickremesinghe announced that the State of Emergency in Sri Lanka will not be continued.

The revised travel update says French citizens have been requested to maintain strong vigilance during their trip to Sri Lanka and, in any event, avoid any regrouping, a fortiori of a political nature while keeping themselves regularly informed of developments in the situation.

They have also been requested to use a local travel agency for any travel in the interior of the country, which will be best able to manage fuel supplies for registered tourist vehicles.

“Sri Lanka is currently experiencing a serious economic and political crisis. Significant shortages affect the whole country. They relate in particular to fuel, strongly restricting travel on the island. It is still difficult to obtain gasoline for tourists traveling on their own. Public transport, both public and private (bus, train), are heavily affected by this situation and operate erratically. Daily power cuts are also applied but tend to be less severe than in recent months, throughout the territory,” the travel advisory further states.

The revised travel update also says, “the massive demonstrations of July 9, which were generally peaceful, triggered an important political transition phase for the country with the appointment of a new president. The country is also experiencing a certain lull on the shortage front with supplies still limited but better organized. Demonstrations have also been rarer in recent weeks.” (NewsWire)