Tourism awaits coming months with anticipation
View(s):Sri Lanka is biding its time ahead of coming months to be moved out of the red list of countries to travel to in a bid to generate the tourist traffic from the traditional markets in Europe.
In the next few months for certain when the death rate reduces and the vaccination drive reaches out to over 30 year olds then, the Sri Lankan (negative) rating in markets like the UK are likely to improve, NKar Travels Managing Director Nilmin Nanayakkara told the Business Times on Thursday.
He noted that for instance the two European carriers Air France and Edelweiss Air will be flying in by winter and are expected to commence schedules in coming months.
This is a clear indication that the industry will see more travellers coming here, he said.
At present inquiries are being made from the Scandinavian market; the French operators are said to have got reactivated, the UK operators are very quiet at present and are said to be watching the situation for the moment.
Commenting on the foreign traveller reactions to the current situation, he explained, “It’s definitely a responsibility and concern of every government to look at the global situation prior to making their decisions for tourists but the attitude and decision making toward COVID-19 is definitely changing.”
In fact with the reopening of the airport, Mr. Nanayakkara noted that he believed that “business will trickle down into Sri Lanka and it did happen with the CIS market”.
However, despite high expectations from Sri Lanka’s more traditional markets like Europe this was not the case and China remains closed, he said.
He also pointed out that once the European carriers fly in there is a possibility that the West Asian airlines too will start coming in, joining in on the competition.
City Hotels Association President M. Shanthikumar pointed out that they too expect the winter season to improve and in this respect, the tourism industry has been meeting officials at the embassies from the key source markets to try and get them to improve on the country’s rating.
In this respect, the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority is also working with the Sri Lankan embassies overseas to ensure Sri Lanka’s rating is upgraded to amber by the end of September when a higher percentage of citizens will be vaccinated. The industry has been working on this locally, he said.
However, Mr. Shanthikumar pointed out that there is no particular requirement that is being mentioned by the foreign embassies on how Sri Lanka’s rating could be improved.
The industry has also made a request to ensure that those below 30 years are also vaccinated as a matter of priority, he noted.
Most hotels are said to be engaging their staff by ensuring they work within a bubble and conduct PCR tests on them before commencing work.
Mr. Shanthikumar also pointed out that unless due to medical reasons, most hotels have a policy of mandatory vaccination.
Under these circumstances, the winter numbers are not expected to be large and bookings are likely to take place later, he said.