Global firms opt out of Berlin’s largest travel show
Sri Lankan companies are going ahead with plans to participate at next month’s, biggest travel fair in Berlin even as participants from a number of other countries appear to have opted out.
The annual International Travel Borse (ITB), the biggest travel fair, is held from March 4-8 in Berlin every year with a large participation from a number of countries from around the world. Sri Lanka too takes part in the event every year.
Head of ITB Berlin David Ruetz had stated on the fair’s official website: “At present the effects of the coronavirus are very limited. To date two Chinese exhibitors have cancelled. A large number of Chinese stands are run by staff from Germany and Europe and are thus not affected by cancellations. Overall, the percentage of exhibitors from the People’s Republic of China is low. The safety of our visitors and exhibitors has the utmost priority. We are in permanent contact with the public health authorities and will take all recommended measures as and when they become necessary.”
However, foreign media reports state that from a database of 230,000 travel industry readers booked to attend ITB Berlin it had been found that about 37 per cent including four exhibitors had cancelled their participation, 48 per cent were planning to attend and 15 per cent are in a state of wait and see out of which a majority had indicated they want ITB to cancel or postpone the event.
This year too at least 60 Sri Lankan companies, as of Friday, have agreed to participate at the event.
Interestingly a number of other global events in countries outside China have been postponed or cancelled with the latest being the Barcelona Mobile World Congress 2020 to be held at the end of the month over the coronavirus health scare.
In the meantime, Chinese authorities have cancelled their travel fair in Guangzhou in March but no such decisions have been taken regarding the Shanghai travel fair due to take place in April this year.
Hoteliers complain that with the drop in the expected revenue from the large numbers that were scheduled to arrive in the country during the Chinese New Year, the industry is hard hit under the circumstances. Authorities in China banning group travel overseas for their citizens, clearly impacting tourist traffic with Sri Lanka is set to lose its second biggest market, currently at a standstill.
In this respect, Sri Lankan industry analysts point out that they expect a loss of at least US$50 million in revenue for the 9-month period from this month (February) as a result of the drop in traffic from China during this holiday period.
Moreover, a 50 per cent drop in Chinese arrivals is expected for the entire year.
On the other hand, the outbreak of the virus that has caused panic among people globally has caused traffic from other markets to also slowdown with industry sources stating that they are seeing approximately 10 per cent of cancellations from a number of other markets to Sri Lanka as well.
Exports and Imports
In the meantime, tea brokers say that orders for shipments to China already sourced would be processed but that there were no new orders coming to exporters in Sri Lanka.
China is a large consumer of orthodox black teas and other specialty teas with bubble tea and iced tea a favourite among the locals.
However, due to the drop in the number of people moving out of their homes, there has been no demand.
Exporters believe it is still too early to predict the drop in demand for teas. In 2019 Sri Lanka exported 12.9 million kg of Ceylon Tea to China.
On the other hand, the apparel industry is adopting a wait-and-see stance as they hope the Chinese factories – which supply lot of raw material to Sri Lanka – are likely to open next week, Sri Lanka Apparel Exporters Association Chairman Rehan Lakhany told the Business Times on the sidelines of the grouping’s AGM on Wednesday.
He noted that while everyone is checking on their own customers this current situation was not something the industry could work out on their own.
Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus and currently under lockdown is also one of the areas from which Sri Lanka sources most of its accessories for the manufacture of its garments.
Inspite of the fact that fabric is also sourced from other countries, Sri Lanka still stands to lose since even one part of the garment may be sourced from China.
Looking at the bright side of things, Mr. Lakhany said the impact would have been much worse if it happened before or after the New Year since then everything would come to a standstill at once. In this respect, under the circumstances “everybody knows that they are to wait until the holidays are over!”
