Sri Lanka’s tourism sector is pulling out all the stops to unblock tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka this winter - and to precipitate the fall of adverse travel advisories. “The travel advisory by Australia has been reduced in severity. Other countries will also follow,” the President of the Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka, Srilal Miththapala told the Sunday Times FT on the sidelines of a press conference to launch the new Sri Lanka tourism brand this week.
Tourism authorities have been asking foreign missions to remove adverse travel advisories on Sri Lanka. A few countries have responded positively. “We have had a positive response from some countries. We feel that France and Japan may relax travel advisories within this year,” the Secretary to the Ministry of Tourism, George Michael told the Sunday Times FT.
Sri Lanka’s traditional, western tourism generating countries had issued stiff travel warnings on Sri Lanka as a result of the war. These travel advisories mostly cautioned against travel to conflict affected parts of the island. However, they also deterred tourists from visiting other areas of the country, such as the South, that were not badly affected by security concerns stemming from the war. Although the nearly 30-year armed conflict has now ended, the travel warnings are still looming over the country.
But the tourism sector says travel warnings will disappear with the growth of tourism. To help the process, other obstacles to inbound travel are being targeted. The tourism authorities say negotiations are underway to increase flights to the country. Two additional airlines, Air Asia, a Malaysian budget airline, and Air Oman, the national carrier of the Sultanate of Oman, have agreed to fly to Sri Lanka from this year. International campaigns have also been launched to increase tourist arrivals in the coming winter season.
“If airlines can fill seats to full capacity, they can offer lower prices to passengers. That is why it is important to promote Sri Lanka, to attract larger volumes of people,” said the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority and the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, Bernard Goonatilake.
Travel warnings are expected to ease with travel and tourism growth.
“The travel warnings will go away naturally when nothing adverse happens,” said Mr Miththapala.
The tourism sector says it can accommodate up to 650,000 arrivals. So far annual tourist volumes have been in the range of 400,000 to 500,000.
“We have 15,000 rooms available. This is enough to cater to 650,000 tourists per year. Another 5,000 rooms will be coming in gradually to cater to higher volumes in future,” said the President of the Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators, Chandra Wickramasinghe.
Sri Lanka tourism was re-branded this week under the theme ‘Sri Lanka; small miracle.’ The new theme will replace the previous branding ‘Sri Lanka; a land like no other.’ |
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