Financial Times

SLTB, UK welcomes new travel advisory
Sri Lanka's Tourism Board office in the UK last week welcomed a new UK travel advisory which eases travel restrictions in tsunami-affected areas in the south.

Ms Charmarie Maelge, Director of the Sri Lanka Tourist Board UK, said UK tour operators - soon after the tsunami - had no choice but to allow clients to cancel if they are booked to the area affected by the advisory up to the end of February and to rebook clients on an alternative holiday, but this is then generally to another country, which was no help to Sri Lanka.

"Customers booked after 1st March, especially over Easter, to extend our rebooking policy further, were also putting the tour operators under pressure. But with the positive step of the UK government to revise the travel advisory we will be able to ask potential tourists to visit to opened resorts of southern coastal belt, " she said in a statement.

According to Ms Maelge, this development will be extremely beneficial towards launching the tourism industry on a recovery path. The updated travel advisory on January 21 has been reviewed and reissued with an amendment to the Natural Disasters section and stipulates that " the tsunami on 26 December 2004 caused large scale damage and extensive casualties along the eastern, southern and south-western coastline of Sri Lanka.

A number of the hotels in the south and southwest are now functioning as normal. Anyone planning to travel to those areas should check with their tour operators and/or the hotel before departing that the hotel has re-opened for business.

Most hotels on the east coast in Trincomalee, Nilaveli and Arugam Bay suffered major damage and remain closed. There are, however, no security reasons why travellers should not visit these areas."

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