Sri Lankan corporates shun Asian Cities
The coronavirus outbreak has not just impacted Sri Lanka’s outbound travel market but also caused uncertainty in trade with China as Sri Lanka’s tourism industry readies to participate at the biggest travel fairs next month in Berlin.
A bus carrying tourists from Queen Mary 2 cruise ship leaves for a one day city tour in the background of container cargoes. Both tourism and trade have been affected by the coronavirus. Pic by Amila Gamage
Organisers at the ITB Berlin fair have announced precautionary measures against the coronavirus. The fair normally results in 64 participating companies from Colombo. Another fair in Milan already has 16 companies confirmed.
Issuing a media release the ITB organisers have stated that though they “do not foresee any impacts” for the upcoming ITB Berlin, they have adopted a number of precautionary measures to ensure safety of all attendees.
A number of rapid response English speaking medical teams will be deployed along with other health professionals onsite; hand disinfectors will be provided at all entrances to exhibition and hand sanitation already installed in all toilets and washrooms; and authorities will be increasing the frequency with which sanitary facilities are disinfected.
More countries are shunning China and closing borders in a bid to contain the virus from spreading and in this respect, the European Union (EU) is also reportedly discussing the possibility of introducing entry restrictions to Chinese nationals and recent visitors to mainland China are currently being discussed among EU member states, according to a report on the Schenegen Visa website.
Member states are said to be considering a suspension of visa issuance for nationals of a few countries in addition to China is also an option if the situation does not improve for the better.
Meanwhile, foreign local tour operators note that under the circumstances large tour operators that usually market China are now temporarily stopping this and have looked at attracting visitors to Sri Lanka.
In fact, JourneyScapes Managing Director Devendre Senaratne said that large tour operators will be conducting a special promotion as well.
He explained the main focus of the ITB fair would be the Western European market and how to cash in on arrivals from these markets.
The virus continues to increase its impact having infected 28, 276 confirmed cases globally and 564 deaths within China and one outside as of February 6, according to the World Health Organisation.
The WHO has declared the current situation as global public health emergency and has recommended a number of precautions to adopt in a bid to contain the spread of coronavirus.
In the wake of the increase in the number of cases and a drop in revenue, the Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) has urged the government to consider extending the moratoriums on all loans and interest granted by financial institutions for the tourism industry since the Easter Sunday attacks.
The tourism industry globally is likely to be impacted by the virus outbreak for at least another 6-9 months. Sri Lanka attracts 10 per cent of its tourists from China but cancellations particularly of group travels have impacted on arrivals and earnings for an industry that was just picking up.
Corporates shun Asia
Most corporates in Sri Lanka are shunning the Asian region and as a result, of the seven companies scheduled to attend the Philippines travel fair, five had withdrawn participation this year.
The China World Travel Fair scheduled to be held in Guangzhou later this month has been cancelled by authorities.
However, the World Travel Fair in Shanghai scheduled to be held in April has not been cancelled by the Chinese authorities and Sri Lanka is currently going ahead with the necessary preparations to attend the fair.
But there are concerns about the epidemic and in this regard, authorities would be taking a decision later on whether they would actually participate at the event.
Another travel show scheduled for March in Singapore has been postponed to May as more and more companies are concerned about travelling to Asian destinations.
Trade impact
Traders are concerned that a drop in imports of mobile phones, printer cartridges, printers, computers and accessories is likely to be adversely impacted as Sri Lanka is a large buyer of these items from China.
The Chinese factories have not opened up for operations due to the virus outbreak and the extension of the holiday week by the Chinese government.
The incidence of the epidemic is set to create an impact on one of Sri Lanka’s largest exporter, the apparel industry as China is the largest supplier of raw materials and fabrics.
Currently, each manufacturer is in discussion with the individual Chinese factories regarding the next shipment of raw materials and fabrics but at present there is a “lot of uncertainty,” Sri Lanka Apparel Exporters Association (SLEA) Rehan Lakahny told the Business Times on Friday.
He noted that the industry is still “waiting to see the impact” but they believe there is potential for “quite an impact.”
The apparel industry generally awaits their fabrics and raw materials shipments soon after the Chinese New Year.
But issues have arisen since the holiday period has been extended and transportation disrupted and some factories closed as a result of the current situation in China, Mr. Lakahny said.
He explained, under the circumstances they were unaware of the real shipment dates and following this they would have to negotiate the shipments of garments individually with their own end customers if delays do occur.
| Plans curtailed | |
| Sri Lankans have curtailed travel plans overseas directly hurting incentive travel over concerns of the coronavirus outbreak in a number of countries. Travel Agents Association of Sri Lanka (TAASL) President Trevor Rajaratnam said that Sri Lankans are in “trepidation particularly going to the Asian region, mainly to Thailand, China and Vietnam.” As a result incentive tours are being rescheduled particularly to Asian countries and companies are not keen on taking responsibility and “don’t want to run the risk” of sending their teams overseas. Mr. Rajaratnam noted this has affected the outbound travel to some extent although travel to other destinations has not been impacted so far. “People who have been travelling and plan to travel in a month or two are rescheduling because nobody wants to take a chance or expose themselves,” he explained. Asked to comment on how long this epidemic outbreak could affect overseas travel by Sri Lankans, he noted they were uncertain. |