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Monday, 14 October 2019 00:16 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Charumini de Silva
Sri Lanka Tourism yesterday countered industry pessimism, saying that the sector has recovered in five months and year-end tourist arrivals will dip only 20% despite the Easter Sunday terror attacks. “Looking at the data, year-to-date decline in tourist arrivals is only 20%. The industry has recovered 80% in just five months,” Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) Chairman Kishu Gomes told Daily FT.
Daily FT reported last Friday quoting The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) President Sanath Ukwatte that hotels fear 50% drop in occupancy levels this winter season over the corresponding period of last year.
“Actually we are doing 80% of last year, despite facing an unfortunate incident. This performance is against the best year we had so far in our history, recording over 2.3 million arrivals,” Gomes pointed out.
In April, soon after the Easter Sunday attacks, tourism officials estimated a 30% drop in arrivals for 2019 and it was later revised to 20% considering the visitor level trends over the past four months.
Considering the recovery level in countries who faced similar situations, Gomes said Sri Lanka had definitely surpassed the recovery time period, especially compared to Bali and Australia.
Sri Lanka earlier expected arrivals to revive over a 13- to 18-month period, given the experiences of other countries that had seen bomb attacks.
He said a 70-member delegation from the Community of Australian Tour Operators (CATO) had also affirmed that Sri Lanka was the best country that managed such a devastating situation within just a few months at an event held in Colombo this weekend.
“CATO President Denis Bunnik on Saturday told a large gathering of service providers in Colombo that Sri Lanka has recovered faster than any other country which went through similar experiences and showed the world its resilience once again. This itself is a strong statement to the industry,” Gomes stressed.
When asked if there was a toll on the tourism industry with the upcoming Presidential Elections next month, he ruled it out by noting that country was in a better position than speculated.
“There could have been some distress among political parties if there were breakaways as speculated by most, but now all major parties have selected their favourite candidates for the elections and there is consensus within the parties. Therefore, we believe there would a minimal impact on the industry,” he added.
He noted that generally tourists also tended not to stretch themselves too much during an election period as they usually did.
Despite authorities’ failure to rollout the much-needed global promotional campaign due to various bureaucratic red-tape, Gomes said a three-month television media advertising campaign with CNN which commenced in latter part of last month would have visibility in the tourist-generating markets to revive the popularity of the destination in the minds of the consumers.
In addition he said that recovery of the industry was well intensified by the promotional activities by the SLTPB and the travel incentive packages announced by the industry itself, backed by the re-endorsements of the country as the world’s top destination by Lonely Planet and Travel and Leisure naming it the world’s top island.
In this recovery process, he said the aviation industry had been very cooperative in assisting the tourism industry in terms of the discounts and reducing ground handling charges, particularly by National Carrier, SriLankan Airlines.
Despite a fast recovery in arrivals from a 70.8% fall in May flowing the bombings, the Central Bank has said that tourism earnings would take longer to recover, as hotels are full in the winter season due to large discounts offered. Some hotels have offered half-priced rooms running as far as August next year, amidst the panic after the Easter Sunday terror attacks.
The revised overall earnings forecast for 2019 is around $ 3.5 billion, down from $ 4.4 billion achieved in 2018. Tourism officials in April projected a $ 1.5 billion revenue loss this year.
