Hon. Prasanna Ranatunga, Minister of Tourism has submitted a Cabinet Memorandum on introducing of a long term visa category and the granting of tax concessions to promote Sri Lanka as a favourable destination to digital nomads. Due to the Covid pandemic situation, the digital nomads tourism is a new tourism sector emerging in the world and the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, which is functioning under the by the Ministry of Tourism, has proposed to attract digital nomads to Sri Lanka. Minister of Tourism, Hon. Prasanna Ranatunga says that Sri Lanka also hopes to promote the digital nomads as a new way to contribute significantly to the national economy by uplifting the crisis-ridden tourism industry and earning more foreign exchange.
Digital nomads are people who use digital technologies to earn a living and conduct their life in a nomadic manner. Digital nomads typically have a high level of financial stability, self-reliance and discipline. These digital nomads stay in the country for months, years, etc., thus generating a high amount of foreign exchange to the country.At present, many of the world's leading tourist destinations have taken steps to promote the digital nomads, including Chiang Mai in Thailand, Lisbon in Portugal, Medellin in Colombia, and Bali in Indonesia in order to attract digital nomads.
Attraction of digital nomads can be introduced as one of the major promotion initiatives that can be implemented in line with the health guidelines in the face of Covid pandemic. Minister of Tourism, Hon. Prasanna Ranatunga further stated that steps will be taken to issue these long-term visas and provide tax concessions by the Department of Immigration and Emigration, following the assessment and recommendation of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority.