News
Hotels lower their sights for tourist bookings
View(s):By Wasantha Ramanayake
Hotels are gearing up for less-than-expected numbers of visitors from Europe’s winter.
Although October arrivals were slightly higher from September, hotel managers said there is not much hope for the remaining two months.
In the first 25 days of October there were 31,000 foreign visitors, Tourist Hotels Association (THASL) president, M. Shanthikumar said.
Empty restaurant in Sigiriya
“Tourist hotels are faring bad, and they are trying to survive,” he added, noting that the arrivals are far below expectations.
Hotels are depending instead, on local patronage, and food and beverage sales.
“We are positive as long as there are no issues in the country, and there will be positive growth,” he said. “The prevailing political situation, economic crisis and travel advisories prevent foreign tourists from booking hotels well in advance.”
The rupee’s depreciation against the US dollar means rooms rates are cheaper compared with pre-coronavirus pandemic levels.
“Tourists who come to Sri Lanka get more value for their money,” Mr Shanthikumar said. The average room sold at US$130 in 2018 is now US$100 or less.
“Unfortunately, natural and man-made disasters do not permit tourists to visit this unique place. We have everything, a complete set of products,” which is hardly available in any other south or southeast Asian country, he said.
A manager of a hotel in Polonnaruwa said: “We do not have new bookings so far for November and December.’’
According to a manager of a hotel in Sigiriya, the occupancy for November and December is at 5% and 4%, respectively, with hardly any foreign tourists.
“We have credit card promotions for Sri Lankans,” he said, adding that even for January, there are no bookings.
According to a front office manager of a popular city hotel in Kandy, there are no bookings for the next two months.
A manager at a tourist resort in Anuradhapura said there are a few group bookings, but there could be some cancellations.
The head of sales for the Anantara cluster of coastal resorts, Ms. Champika de Silva, said more tourists prefer to stay longer in coastal resorts.
Ms. De Silva said that the UK used to be the major market.
“We are working hard to get it back,” she said. There are bookings from Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) a group of 10 countries, formerly federations of the USSR.
Direct bookings from the UK market are just picking up.
“We are travelling there before the World Travel Market (WTM) in November to hold discussions with our partners,” said Ms. De Silva. The wholesale market that is driven by travel companies in the UK will be promoted.
However, she noted that inflation and high energy prices in the UK would force many to rethink travel plans.
“Even the prices of flights increased drastically. Not many would be able to escape to a nice country for the winter,” she said.
“If you see things positively, high energy prices in winter might also make people want to escape to the tropics.
“There is a lot of negative news in the international media about the country, such as there is no food, fuel, or medicine in the country. We need to take the correct message across. We are still far away from our budget for a normal winter for our three upmarket resorts.’’
Revenue will not cover operating costs, she said.
“For November, we are at one fourth of the forecast, which is nowhere near the budget. Our budget is four times the bookings we have right now for November.”
Expectations are that bookings will improve in December.
“We are usually full in December, and bookings come at the last minute,” Ms De Silva said. She expects fewer visitors from chartered flights in November.
The Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka has tied up with a PR company in the UK for a campaign titled, ‘Visit Sri Lanka’ she said.
Sri Lanka missed the bookings period before September as there were travel advisories. These were relaxed only towards the end of September.
Individual properties and alliances are, too, doing their own campaigns, Ms De Silva said.
At the start of the year, Sri Lanka set an ambitious target of 2.2 million visitors, but lowered it to one million, and then trimmed it further to 800,000.
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