Hotels brace for “feverish” times
As Sri Lanka sits on the verge of a major crisis, the tourism industry is under pressure for the second time in a year as the country readies for the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) after the second confirmed patient was reported on Thursday.
With on arrival visas cancelled and a number of local organisers cancelling events at hotels, silence is evident around the once busy lounges and cafes as dinner and lunch events are called off.
These are the echoes of a once-thriving hotel industry that was just recovering from the Easter Sunday attacks and have in nearly one year’s time, once again come face to face with another crisis.
On Thursday, all airline managers were called for a meeting with Airport and Aviation Services Ltd (AASL) where airlines were informed that they should stop bringing in passengers arriving from Iran, Italy and South Korea, Board of Airline Representatives (BAR) Chairman Dimuthu Tennakoon said.
By Friday the ban was extended to visitors from same European and Scandinavian countries. Hotels in Colombo have seen a number of cancellations and postponement of events and exhibitions as the organisers of events with mass gatherings continue to take precautionary measures against the outbreak of the COVID-19 in the country. Elsewhere, outbound passengers who wanted to postpone trips said airlines were allowing postponements but in the case of cancellation, charging a cancellation fee which was unfair.
Embassies that issue Schengen visas and the British embassy have apparently told those who obtained visas to travel abroad but have postponed trips that travellers have to reapply for fresh visas.
Hoteliers take stock
Tourist Hotels Association (THASL) President Sanath Ukwatte speaking with the Business Times noted that the “situation is so dynamic. We hope that the virus can be contained. Everything has slowed down.”
In this respect, hoteliers are becoming flexible on cancellation policies, he said; “We are adopting a one week cancellation and considering 48 hours.”
As a result he said that those who would have booked now to arrive next week are allowed to change the date without any surcharge or penalty as long as they don’t travel during local peak times, in a bid to ensure that bookings would be kept intact.
“Some hotels are giving zero cancellation even the day before but 48 hours will be the norm and clients will be given their money back,” he noted.
In the wake of these developments the hotel staff is likely to face a severe pinch as the upcoming New Year holidays would be severely impacted since hoteliers were looking at postponing payments of bonuses and incentives.
Mr. Ukwatte explained, “We are very worried what action to take since this is the time for increments and bonuses – I feel the hotels might have to postpone these payments of these extra wages by way of increments and incentives in bonuses for later in the year.”
With airlines cutting down their routes and flights business is getting adversely affected, he noted.
Connaissance De Ceylan Chairman Chandra Wickramasinghe said “everything is getting cancelled – next week there won’t be any tourists in the country.”
With a few charters still coming in the Russians are there, he said but only a few Europeans are visiting.
Currently, he noted there are no bookings and though domestic travel is happening it does not help the hoteliers as most travel only during long weekends and does not generate the anticipated earnings.
Mr. Wickramasinghe noted that they would adopt a zero cancellation policy at least until October with no extra charges with postponement.
Inbound tour company operator Devendre Senaratne said that currently hotels were doing about 60 per cent in terms of occupancies whereas they should ideally have about 80 per cent occupancies.
April will be few and due to this reason there will be few arriving during the Easter holidays as well, it was noted. Expectations are that there will be a 20 per cent drop in arrivals compared to last year, Mr. Senaratne explained.
Officials at the Tourism Promotion Bureau were not participating at any of the international travel shows. The Riyadh Travel Show was cancelled, Sri Lanka will not participate at the Ukraine Travel Fair this month and the Sri Lankan embassy is to take part in the Russian Travel Show MITT if held as scheduled later this month. The much-attended Arabian Travel Mart has been postponed to June.
Authorities have also suggested to the industry, it is learnt, to allow their foreign agents to participate in any travel fairs if necessary rather than attending it themselves.
However, the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) annual conference scheduled to take place in Colombo in June is still on the cards but “all depends on the next few weeks,” Tourism Promotion Research and International Affairs Director Udana Wickremesinghe said.
He noted that arrangements were still underway and that 150 international participants were expected with about 200 local industry participants and other stakeholders.
Jetwing Chairman Hiran Cooray noted that currently their occupancies were at about 60 per cent but noted “new bookings have more or less come to a standstill for the next three months or so until this coronavirus is brought under control – at the moment there’s a lot of uncertainty.”
Asked if the Public Health Inspectors (PHIs) were carrying out checks on their guests for their health, he noted that there was no such thing at their hotels.
Health Checks
Sri Lanka’s 2700 PHIs are currently deployed island-wide and at airports to report on the health conditions of the arriving visitors to the country.
PHI Union President Upul Rohana told the Business Times that they were having difficulty in managing the situation since their numbers were less and they were at the time having over 4000 Sri Lankan and foreign nationals under surveillance.
How the system works is that those arriving when identified as suspected cases would continuously be monitored by the PHIs in their localities and reported on.
However, Mr. Rohana noted that they do not use thermal scanners on the field but simply carry out a health check on the suspected persons.
However, he pointed out that they check on patients even in hotels but there was a problem in obtaining the right information.
“We have stopped all our other work and check on the arrivals,” he explained noting there is a serious problem due to inadequate staff.