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Tuesday, 19 April 2022 01:50 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Charumini de Silva
The tourism industry is starting to suffer the fallout of economic and political crises at a time when the sector was just starting to recover from post-pandemic, as uncertainty prompts cancellations by both business and leisure visitors.
Although the bookings and cancellations were taking place at a very low pace at the beginning of the month, it has now escalated up to over 40% just within the past week.
“Despite the shortage of fuel and electricity tourists continued to arrive in the country, which was quite evident with March numbers.”
“However, following the declaration of State of Emergency and abrupt decisions to impose a curfew early this month triggered a bad image in the international arena, which has now resulted in many countries issuing adverse travel advisory on Sri Lanka,” The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) President M. Shanthikumar told the Daily FT.
He said at present the cancellations have escalated from 40% to 45%, whilst fearing that it could be more in the immediate future if authorities do not take measures to tackle the situation.
“The ad-hoc decisions by the Government have hampered the industry by imposing curfew and State of Emergency because these are drastic measures countries impose only when there is war, but even Russia had not announced such measures.
“These short-sighted actions have sent wrong messages to the international travel community and following revoking them, the authorities have not taken any countermeasures to assure the world that Sri Lanka is a safe destination for travel,” Shanthikumar stressed.
Australia, the US, Canada, the UK, and New Zealand have issued advisories already, whilst China and Singapore have urged their citizens to exercise caution in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO) Past President Maahen Kariyawasan said they fear losing all summer bookings, as they too have noticed cancellations of 35% to 40% currently.
Tourism Advisory Committee member and industry veteran Chandra Wickramasinghe also reiterated that there is drop in tourist arrivals, which is impacted by the prevailing situation, adverse travel advisory and discontinuation of certain air connectivity into key source markets.
“The advisories are still at manageable levels, where countries have not advised on ‘essential travel’ yet. Historically, April, May and June tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka are slow and during this time it is Indian, Middle Eastern, Japanese and Australians come.”
“However, with current developments, we notice that there is a drastic drop in pre-booked holidays — that is an alarming situation. Air Astana and Air India stopped flying into Colombo recently and our flag carrier, SriLankan Airlines announced suspension of direct flights to Moscow, Russia and Bahrain in Oman. All these factors impacted in one blow,” he explained.
Wickramasinghe also said if the authorities can assure that they will provide uninterrupted electricity, and fuel for the next three to six months the arrivals could be rerouted to Sri Lanka.
The industry stakeholders collectively called on authorities to look into the multiple crises ‘not as a regulator’, but as a facilitator to overcome the challenges and ensure that the foreign exchange inflow via the tourism sector is not hindered.
In addition, Wickremasinghe highlighted that the repayment of loans that were on moratorium will be a major threat to the survival of the industry stakeholders under new interest rates.
The industry stakeholders pointed out that if no proactive measures are taken by the Government to mitigate multiple crises, it will also impact the winter bookings.
