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Travel firms hit by travel advisory against TN
The Government’s travel advisory issued on September 4 warning Sri Lankans against visiting Tamil Nadu has adversely hit the travel firms. Local travel agencies are experiencing a decline in travellers to Chennai where a group of Sri Lankan tourists were attacked by mob in an incident that prompted Sri Lanka to issue the advisory.
Gabo Travels, which has been arranging pilgrimages to India, is one such agency. A spokesperson from Gabo Travels said that, since the day the attacks took place and the travel advisory was issued, a number of bookings were cancelled.
“People are now scared to travel to India, even though the travel advisory was against travelling only to Tamil Nadu,” she said.
Business trips were as usual, but pilgrimage trips had significantly decreased, she said adding that about 80% of Lankans flying to India were pilgrims, most of whom use Chennai as a transit point to travel to other places in India.
An official of the Jetwings Travels said the company received only three bookings this week to Chennai, while usually, it was 20 bookings. However, he said people were shifting their bases to Mumbai but that was only the business community.
Nevertheless, the tale of a passenger presently touring India and that of the airlines frequently flying to Chennai was different.
Dharshani Kuruppu who left the country last week on a 20-day pilgrimage trip with a travel agency to various places in India, said that, “Our group of about 30 embarked from Colombo, and our first stop was Chennai. Then another flight to Delhi. So far, we have not encountered any incidents at any of our stops.”
SriLankan Airlines spokesman Deepal Perera said that to date the airline had not recorded any decline in passengers flying to Chennai with the airline continuing to operate the same number of flights. Government has not lifted the travel advisory despite please from a Tamil Nadu trade chamber.
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