Hotels in Sri Lanka go empty
Sri Lanka’s hotels are still reeling from the shock of the attack by Islamic extremists on Easter Sunday with occupancies crashing to a mere four per cent in Colombo and 10 per cent islandwide.
Even as the tourism industry remained concerned about the security situation in the country some hotels like the Cinnamon Grand, Cinnamon Lakeside and the Kingsbury have already adopted new measures like the installation of scanners at points of entry to carry out security checks on persons visiting the hotels.
Security in hotels is also provided by armed personnel posted in front where the numbers manning these posts could increase from eight to 20.
Colombo City hotels’ occupancies have come crashing down to about 4 per cent while the number of persons staying in hotels was down at about 10 per cent for hotels islandwide, City Hoteliers Association President M. Shanthikumar told the Business Times.
There has been over 80 per cent of cancellations, he also said and this has been confirmed by a number of reports that similarly stated how hotels both in the city and the resorts were found to lose bookings although a handful of travellers were positive about touring the destination.
Even Sri Lankans are not patronizing the hotels and this has caused a further downfall in revenues for the hotel industry as most hotels have gone empty. While some hotels in the city remain open for business others provide limited services.
Staff today outnumbers tourists as travellers are unlikely to visit the destination unless their countries assure them of their stay in Sri Lanka. Numerous travel advisories from the UK, US to Israel, Spain, and even China have caused a direct hit on the number of bookings for the next few months.
In fact, some in the industry complain that winter bookings were also getting cancelled already in addition to all other bookings.
Authorities were asked to be in touch with the respective embassies in the country to ensure a relaxation of the travel ban to Sri Lanka.
In the meantime, the tourism industry and in particular the hoteliers were assured of a moratorium on their loan repayments. Most hotels were said to have obtained dollar loans and this had even prior to the attacks caused concern resulting in a request to tour operators to carry out transactions in dollars. This came in the form of a budget proposal.
However, this seemed to be taking a back seat for now and in the wake of the suicide attacks on three luxury hotels in Colombo the industry has been assured by both the President and Prime Minister of a moratorium on their loans and a further capital infusion. Another plan of action that has taken a back seat is the much-awaited global promotion campaign without which the industry and authorities are now planning on short term immediate publicity campaign promoting the destination. This campaign that should have ideally been given a cabinet nod last week is still pending approval.
Mr. Shanthikumar noted that they were yet to arrive at a decision on banning the burqa in hotels but observed that if there was a law to ban it then all should adhere to it.
Staff in hotels is also feeling the pinch. He said that although there was no staff leaving hotels, those keenly dependent on the service charge may look for other opportunities.
An industry that is always positive inspite of the crises they face has repeatedly told authorities to ensure they talk in one voice so as to send out the correct message to the international community.
Tour Operators Association President Harith Perera told the Business Times that they informed authorities of the need to regularise the shuttle bus service at the airport to ensure convenience of passage to travellers; and also to make necessary arrangements to assist visitors at the airport could stay without hassle.
Tourism authorities and industry at the Arabian Travel Mart (ATM) in Dubai facing the world for the first time in a public gathering were able to act positive and communicate a clear message to partners and tour operators. Most tour operators and agents have insisted that they need to wait and see as travel advisories issued by a number of countries was a deterrent to marketing Sri Lanka.
However, tour operators were said to have been very encouraging as they had pointed out that they were fond of the destination and were keen to sell it to bring the tourist back to this friendly nation.