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Local spenders throwing hotels, restaurants a lifeline
A month after reopening their doors, restaurateurs and management of hotels are hopeful that business will return to normal in coming months.
“Progress is good: reservations have been made for weddings and functions and for stays at hotels – mainly in hotels in the outskirts of Colombo,” the President of the Sri Lanka Hotels Association, Sanath Ukwatte, said.
Hotels in and around Yala were crowded last week and the safari park had gone back to normal. Beach hotels have good occupancy during the weekends, Mr. Ukwatte said.
“The industry is indeed recovering due to local tourism,” he said.
“Local tourism only brings in 20 percent of the revenue to the tourism sector as a whole, but, focusing on the positive, the revenue currently coming our way is definitely better than zero revenue we experienced a couple of months ago.”
A restaurant employee follows health guidelines. Pix by Priyantha Wickramaarachchi
Similar sentiments came from Colombo City Restaurant Collective President Harpo Gooneratne.
“Business has not reached a level that we want, but given the current context of the country still recovering from a global pandemic, businesses will slowly but surely thrive,” Mr. Gooneratne said.
“We are positive that things will get back to normal in a couple of months, and once the country opens for air travel we are hoping tourists will help improve businesses further.”
Smaller eateries are, however, facing problems due to insufficient capital.
Asela Sampath, the National Organiser of the Association of Sri Lanka Restaurant Owners, said there was little sign that banks were heeding the government’s instruction for loans to be given to revive small businesses.
“When restaurant owners go to banks and request a loan, bank managers inform them that they are unaware of such loans, so they come back empty-handed,” Mr. Sampath said.
Some restaurateurs had huge financial burdens, having to settle electricity bills, accumulated rent and, in some cases, replace equipment.
“Our only request to the government is to grant us these loans as we are in dire need of money. Failing this, our industry will collapse,” he said.
Business at restaurants in Colombo slowly but surely picking up
The Chief Medical Officer of the Colombo Municipal Council, Dr. Ruwan Wijeyamuni, also expressed concern over small eateries and hotels and mobile food vans that were not permitted to resume business activities following the two-month lockdown.
“We do not want to deprive them of their livelihood so we have instructed owners to obtain a trade licence and start operating while adhering to health guidelines,” he said.
He made it clear that mobile food vans could not yet legally operate. “They thrive only because of the demand,” he said.
Six teams of medical officers and Public Health Inspectors are making the rounds of restaurants, cafes and hotels to ensure they were following health guidelines.
Fort PHI, M.B. Lal Kumara, said most of the restaurants in Colombo were closed. “Nothing has gone back to normal,” he said. The main cause for this was that many of the employees had returned to their villages when the pandemic struck.
As for what action his inspectors take with eateries falling foul of health ministry guidelines, he said, “We are not currently taking any legal action considering the economic situation, and we understand that they require a recovery period and the after being closed for more than two months, but we will continue inspecting and issuing warnings to the owners.” He suggests that cafes use disposable cups and lunch sheets to help avoid virus transmission.
Mr. Lal Kumara said health officers were gathering details of employees of every eatery in their areas and tracking their travels.