COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka reopened to foreign tourists Thursday after a nearly 10-month pandemic closure that cut deeply into the Indian Ocean island nation’s lucrative travel industry.

Full operations also resumed Thursday at the island’s two international airports, accommodating the commercial flights.

Under new protocols to prevent the spread of COVID-19, tourists must be tested for the virus in their country 72 hours prior to their flight, when they arrive at their hotel in Sri Lanka and again seven days later. They must stay in a “travel bubble” designated in 14 tourism zones without mixing with the local population. About 180 hotels have been earmarked for tourist accommodations.

The resumption of tourism follows a pilot project that began Dec. 26 in which 1,500 tourists from Ukraine visited Sri Lanka in such a travel bubble.

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