Tourism faces tall order of Govt. target
Sri Lanka’s tourism industry has been given the tough task of achieving 800,000 arrivals by the end of the year that is expected to cash in revenue of US$1.5 billion.
Tourism Promotion Bureau officials said that the Presidential Task Force for Tourism had informed the Central Bank that they needed to ensure they achieved the target of 800,000 arrivals to generate US$1.5 billion.
Although tourism authorities had pointed out that this was a tall order and that it was only possible to achieve a target of bringing in only 300-350,000 tourists, the target remains.
Furthermore the authorities are working on a limited budget of US$56 million for a five year global promotion campaign that is expected to get underway only by September.
Authorities have also extended the deadline for the calling of tenders for the global promotion campaign until March 31.
Tourist Hotels Association (THASL) President Sanath Ukwatte told the Business Times on Tuesday that the industry has been given a tough target of US$1.5 billion.
He noted that since most of the key markets like Europe are closed due to the current COVID-19 pandemic it was difficult to bring down tourists.
As a result the industry will now be looking at Kazakhstan and Ukraine to bring down tourists and also once the season begins for winter traffic there are expectations there could be an increase in the numbers since they were receiving inquiries.
“The biggest game changer is the vaccination drive,” Mr. Ukwatte said adding that a lot of countries are now allowing people to enter without quarantine that will allow more people to travel between countries.
Commenting on the new ventures that the hotel sector has moved into like providing quarantine services and healthcare facilities, he explained that these are “temporary measures to pay for the livelihoods of the staff.”
He noted that once the tourist health guidelines were relaxed they would be able to pull out of these services and engage in providing traditional hotel services.
Meanwhile, the industry is in talks with the Central Bank, the Treasury and the Ministry of Finance on the restructuring of their debt and the extension of the moratorium on their loans.
Mr. Ukwatte said that they have also requested for additional working capital regarding which the authorities have remained positive.
The THASL chief further noted that the hotels were going through a tough time and expected an easing off of the situation starting from the winter of this year.
He noted that the biggest challenge is that the traditional markets of Europe, India, China and Australia remain closed for tourist traffic.
The latter part of third quarter and the four quarters of this year are likely to see an improvement in the arrivals as most people were inclined on booking in advance as hotels have also “relaxed their booking policies.”