New visa fees slam growing tourism industry – SLAITO President
The new visa fees has adversely affected the tourism industry making life difficult to obtain a visa to Sri Lanka, says the Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO) President, Nishad Wijetunga.
Speaking at a recent panel discussion organised by the Sunday Times Business Club in association with the Sheraton Colombo Hotel, titled ‘Tourism on a Roll’, Mr. Wijetunga explained that the previous Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) website was very user friendly and easy to access. “It was a sudden change overnight where the previous ETA was shut down and the new e-Visa system became chaotic.”
The other panellists were Priantha Fernando, Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority and Rahul Maini, General Manager of the Sheraton Colombo Hotel
Audience
In a no-holds-barred presentation, Mr. Fernando said that ‘unfortunately’ tourism has become a milking cow at times for the government. “When they see an opportunity they do not look at an investment to bring up the industry, but try to milk it to the maximum. Taxation is a matter of concern, suddenly there is an 18 per cent tax imposed on the tour operators. It’s not easy for the tour operators when an 18 per cent tax is imposed overnight, who have gone ahead with their future travel packages where now they have to pocket it out,” he said.
Sri Lanka is on track to reach the set target of 2.3 million arrivals this year, but there are many bottle necks. There were more than 52 airlines flying to Sri Lanka which dropped down to 29 airlines because of the problems the country faced, he said. “From some of the major generating markets we are short of air seat capacity into Sri Lanka. Looking at markets like Australia, Japan and Korea, we are yet to take maximum advantage of the potential which is there in those markets. From European markets we had direct flights to Sri Lanka, but now most of the flights transit via the Middle East where a tourist tends to lose at least one day of his travel plan. We have to get more airlines with direct services coming to Sri Lanka,” Mr. Fernando said.
Sheraton Colombo Hotel, GM, Rahul Maini stated, “Tourism is a vast industry and it takes time to develop a destination to attract tourists to visit a place where we have set up hotels in the past. As a hotel, we not only provide the right accommodation to different segments of tourists, but also energises the cultural activity in the city that we operate in. Our emphasis is on the local culture, food, activities and dance performances so that we contribute to encouraging the development of tourism in the country.”
He said: “We are seeing tourism picking up in Sri Lanka and the hotel occupancy is increasing as well. The dynamics are also changing from then to now, where new hotels are adding the number of hotel rooms to the existing numbers. Colombo city is growing and the overall infrastructure is getting better.”
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