Summer airfares from Germany to Colombo most expensive compared with neighbours

By Dr. Dietmar Doering    

Almost 10 years after the end of its civil war, Sri Lanka has been named the best country in the world to visit in 2019 by Lonely Planet. The Lonely Planet’s author Ethan Gelber, in his BEST IN TRAVEL 2019 book, says: “Already notable to intrepid travellers for its mix of religions and cultures, its timeless temples, its rich and accessible wildlife, its growing surf scene and its people who defy all odds by their welcome and friendliness after decades of civil conflict, this is a country revived.”

Tourist visits to Sri Lanka have increased dramatically since the end of the 26-year conflict, from 447,890 in 2009 to an all-time high of 2.1 million last year, a figure the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority hopes to double by 2020. 

However as at today, Vietnam, being a country with comparative post war scenarios due to a long war with western countries and tremendous carpet bombarding executed by the US, outperforms Sri Lanka by far with almost over 10 million tourists per annum. 

Comparing Sri Lanka with Vietnam, there isn’t any obvious reason to understand the big reason for such an enormous gap of arrival numbers when it comes to Sri Lanka’s situation. Sri Lanka equally has many things on offer, which attracts foreign tourists.  

The one main reason is that the Vietnam government sponsors their tourism with approximately $1 per guest totalling$10 million per annum, while Sri Lanka spends a mere fraction, amounting to less than $1 million per annum for the promotion of tourism.

This year 2019 could be a fine launching platform for attracting first-time visitors to Sri Lanka and to open Sri Lanka to the world as a top tourist destination, and overcoming the long existing obstacles and misconceptions, which kept tourists from all over the world at bay. Such as the misnomer “off-season” which gives Sri Lanka solely a 6 months tourist season for their 2 western and eastern coastal areas respectively, while the weather patterns are quite acceptable without causing any harm to visiting tourists. The monsoon season in Sri Lanka is far less dangerous than those being experienced in Bangladesh or parts of the Indian Subcontinent. 

However, it seems that a far bigger stumbling block just appeared, keeping the urgently needed new first-time visitors away from visiting Sri Lanka. For the upcoming European summer holidays in July/August, all online budget offerings are surprisingly uncompetitive, compared with other destinations such as Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, and others.   

A recently (08/09.04.2019) conducted airfare comparison for the period 11-25 August, based on the source skyscanner.net by AGSEP RESEARCH, a Sri Lanka-based research institute which has been seen in the forefront of some ground-breaking tourism-related studies and surveys in recent days, rings alarm bells when it comes to comparably huge airfare differences, compared with other nearest destinations.

Well-established, IATA-registered airlines such as Qatar, Etihad, and Emirates fly the Frankfurt-Colombo route on a daily schedule. It is quite surprising to understand that, for example, Qatar Airways charges for the route between Frankfurt/Germany to Colombo and back,Rs. 163,420 while charging only Rs. 117,147 for the Bangkok destination for the same time period. Even more irritating is, that the Frankfurt-Bangkok route is almost 1000 miles further than the route to Colombo.  

Routes to Kuala Lumpur, which is 2000 nautical miles further far than Colombo are offered at Rs. 139,158 by Qatar Airways, and Rs 133.255 by Emirates. On the other hand, Emirates quotes for the Frankfurt-Colombo route a staggering Rs. 186,520, which is almost 40% above the rates compared to the Kuala Lumpur route.

In summary, all of the following 7 major Airlines - Qatar Airways, Etihad, Emirates, Lufthansa+Sri Lankan, Air India, Oman Air, and KLM - quote significantly higher for the Frankfurt-Colombo destination compared to other destinations in the same region.

Many low-budget carriers, who flush all major other airports in the region, are absconding Sri Lanka.

It looks like that something is wrong somewhere,and Tourist Board Authorities might have to take, not only a closer look, but instant action, to bring Sri Lanka back into the market. It is almost an extra Rs. 20,000 which has to be pocketed out by travellers just to reach the island. With an extra Rs. 20,000 in hand, they can fly to Thailand or Malaysia, and spend a week including accommodation and food. 

It is high time to offer budget airfares to tourists from all over the world, to double the number of tourist arrivals by 2020.

(The writer Dr. Dietmar Doering is a social scientist and Head of AGSEP Research.)