State cushions tourism industry
Sri Lanka’s tourism industry shattered from the bomb blasts of Easter Sunday wants the government in one voice to assure travellers it is safe to visit the country again even as the sector received financial help from the state to remain resilient and secure.
This week there were a number of assurances the government gave the tourism industry one being that the security in the country could be assured insisting that the issue was not deeply complex. Another assurance is the financial support in the form of a moratorium of one year on loans and reduction on interest on capital in addition to the duty concessions of importing security equipment to safeguard the hotels.
But the industry is faced with a series of issues that has created a gloomy horizon even as they plan on a promotional blitz to revamp their global image with hotel staff having poor prospects for the future and tour guides and lecturers left jobless.
The relief package announced by the government include the provision of a one year moratorium for loans taken by those engaged in the tourism industry; provision of capital loan facilities under Enterprise Sri Lanka programme; reduction of VAT and provide concessions for security equipments. Also included is a VAT reduction of up to 5 per cent with respect to registered hotels and tourist agents from April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020. This had been arrived at following requests made by the industry and after consultations were carried out by the relevant authorities with both state and private banks in the country in this respect.
Hotels Association President Sanath Ukwatte addressing a forum held to discuss the way forward this week at the Hotel School auditorium in Colombo had stated that some staff was expected to leave and go abroad and they were likely to rejoin them once the condition improves.
Sri Lanka has staff a strength of about 500,000 working in the tourism industry both directly and indirectly and two million lives dependant on them.
With the turnaround time expected to be around eight months to one year the hoteliers are faced with the double-edged issue of being unable to lay off staff but at the same time payments of their employees are set to come down due to a lack of service charge in the absence of any guests, except a handful, staying at hotels.
Mr. Ukwatte said, “In economic terms with the evacuations and travel bans it will take a long time to recover. The hotel industry is on the verge of collapse with many to lose jobs.”
Meanwhile, Inbound Tour Operations President Harith Perera during the meeting noted that while tourists have become a soft target today as a result of which countries like the US and India remain on high alert and pointed out that complacency in terms of security of the country was the biggest problem.
Sri Lanka’s problems mainly lie in the fact that the government continues to give out statements but the one voice and one message that needs to be heard by travellers and the countries that they live in is that there is safety and security assured over here.
“Most of our markets don’t know that there is safety and security assured here,” Mr. Perera said.
The security audit of the country by insurance firms is being worked on by the industry as they require these to ensure they can welcome more visitors. Tour operators believe that although about 95 per cent of the country is safe this message does not go down to the traveller as most markets have already designated the whole of Sri Lanka as unsafe.
The industry appealed to the government to provide them with a clear comprehensive report on security measures in place and in future also update foreign governments on security in a bid to overcome the travel ban to Sri Lanka.
Military spokesman Brigadier Sumith Atapattu assured they had short, mid and long term plans while admitting to certain lapses initially.
However, he told the industry that “this is not deep rooted and complex according to our reading” insisting that they were in full control of the situation.
| Concessions to tourism : Central Bank circular | |
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