Many of the hotel administrators in five star hotels are concerned about bringing massage therapists from foreign countries to Sri Lanka in order to target the tourists coming to Sri Lanka in the future.
It is reported that it is due to the lack of experienced therapists for the massage therapy process for foreign tourists coming to this country.
Also, many massage centers run in and around major hotels have been closed and the owners of these hotels say that they intend to reopen the centers in the future and provide quality massages to foreign tourists.
In this regard, when asked by the Chairman of the Tourism Development Authority Mr. Priyantha Fernando, he said that if the registered organizations of the Tourism Authority apply to bring in foreign massage therapists, they will intervene.
For that, they must first be registered by following the prescribed criteria of the Tourism Development Authority and such a registered organization will check whether the expert services of a therapist are really necessary and before recommending a visa for that, their financial performance including Tourism Development Tax, taxes He said that the payments etc. will be checked.
The Chairman emphasized that there was a demand for the ‘Healthy Tourism’ business in the South Asian and Pacific regions in the post-Covid period and that the quality and standard of the services offered were important.
The chairman also said that they are working to train therapists in Sri Lanka.