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Tourism takes nosedive again as tourists left in quandary
The latest wave of COVID-19 and inter-provincial travel restrictions have led to a spate of cancellations and departures by tourists.
Around 60 percent of the guests he brought in are leaving, said Yohan Perera, Managing Director of Claremont Travels, a ticketing agency. Future flight bookings were also cancelled.
Multiple other travel industry sources confirmed the outflow of tourists, including long-stay guests who had been intending to stay till June or July. “They are afraid all flights will be banned and don’t want to be stuck here because they know what happened last year,” Mr Perera said. “So they are rescheduling their flights and rushing to leave the country.”
Those who wish to stay are also hampered by the inter-provincial travel plan which the authorities have warned could turn into an inter-district plan if the situation worsens. Even after completing the mandatory 14-day quarantine, they find they are stuck in one place.
“Some are waiting to leave but don’t know whether to do so or not,” Mr Perera said. “They can’t make a proper decision. But if they can’t travel freely, why would they stay here. Many who are supposed to come here also cancelled their future bookings.”
Prebudda Jayasinghe, Secretary of the 150-member Association of Small and Medium Enterprises in Tourism, said even inquiries from European countries dried up after Sri Lanka opened up to Indian arrivals. There were also cancellations, particularly after some countries, including Dubai, Italy and Singapore, banned arrivals from Sri Lanka.
Now, his members were again facing dire financial difficulties, Mr Jayasinghe said. The moratorium on debt repayment is ending in September. “We need a credit line to pay loans,” he said. “All the companies will have to shut down by October if we don’t get relief, such as if all our loans and leases can be converted into one loan to be repaid in the long-term or if the moratorium can be extended.”
Most long-stay tourists are leaving because they don’t want to be restricted to provinces, said Ajeet de Soyza, Chief Marketing Officer of Lanka Travel Mart. “Airlines are cancelling flights to Colombo so some of whom have already planned are in a dilemma or are cancelling altogether. While guests can’t come, hotels are not refunding.”
He cited the case of a mother with two children who were on the way to the airport in their home country when they heard all wildlife parks were closed. “They had booked three nights at a luxury safari camp in Yala and this was for the children,” he said. “Considering the escalation of the situation in the country, once they reached the airport, they decided to cancel since it was not worth it. Now the safari camp is refusing to refund even a part of the payment to the guest.”
“If tourism is important to Sri Lanka, the authorities should have a better mechanism in place to handle tourists in situations like this,” Mr de Soyza said. “Imagine if you go to another country and this sort of thing happens?”