Over 4,000 tourist visit Sri Lanka after reopening

 A month after the reopening of Sri Lanka’s borders to international travelers, approximately four thousand tourists have arrived in Sri Lanka, according to the President of the Sri Lanka Hotels Association Sanath Ukwatte.

“This is a positive development since even places like the Maldives only had about nine hundred tourists in their first month after the airports opened,” he said.

He noted that it would be impractical to expect immediate results as most of Sri Lanka’s tourist markets like the UK, Germany, and France were still under lockdown.

 He held that the number of arrivals would have been higher if ‘client country borders’ were open. He added that the government's ‘bio-bubble’ approach to tourism was extremely innovative in attracting visitors. Designated Level 1 hotels welcomed visitors who were allowed to move about the hotels and take full use of their amenities. Guests are not required to stay confined to their rooms. The tourist bubble extends itself to facilitate sightseeing and the visitation of tourist attractions such as the Temple of the Tooth Relic and the Sigiriya Rock. Tourists are also permitted to move between different Level 1 hotels and visit various locations in Sri Lanka during their 14-day isolation period if they wish to. There are approximately 90 Level 1 hotels that are registered with the tourist board.

Locals are not allowed to patronise these hotels and visitors are not allowed to interact with locals at any point until their 14-day period is complete. Heritage sites that are prepared for visits by the tourist bubble are disinfected and subject to a series of health protocols before they are opened to the general public after the designated time elapses.

Mr. Ukwatte noted that the past two years had been a rollercoaster for the tourism industry and noted that the mass vaccination that was going on in the country offered a hopeful future.

‘The industry challenges had two aspects to it - the domestic and the international,’ Chief Operating Officer at Lanka Travel Mart, Ajeet De Soyza told Timesonline. Travel capacity was heavily limited due to seat restrictions, high ticket prices, and restricted outbound travel in other countries.

The usual seasonal wave of tourism that Sri Lanka enjoys during the winter seasons of western countries was hampered as a result of closed borders. The domestic challenges that acted as a deterrent, apart from the more expensive and elusive air travel options, were the additional expenses that arose as a result of the health guidelines. This however also provided local hotels with opportunity since tourists coming into the bubble had to book a stay of 14 days at a hotel instead of going into any residencies they might have in the country. The 3 PCR test requirement would cost a tourist about USD 120 and was a significant cost. He noted that from his experience as a travel agent, the controlled tourist bubbles were being run efficiently and were up to par.

He noted that several small and medium hotel owners, however, had expressed frustration at the fact that it was mostly luxury hotels that were granted level 1 status, however, Mr. De Soyza noted that the facilities required to facilitate the relevant health protocols were also costly which meant that the top tier hotels were in a better position to afford it.

Speaking from his experiences through his interactions with tourists he noted that the only issue had been procedural confusion and that his clients were all happy to be here in Sri Lanka. He noted that the pandemic had resulted in the creation of a unique segment of tourists. He referred to a certain client that had decided to travel to Sri Lanka and spend three months here since his university classes were being held online. He had decided to travel to Sri Lanka since he could attend his lectures from anywhere in the world. Another client who was a web developer had also decided to travel while working since the work from home option allowed him to work from anywhere in the world. ‘Sri Lanka has been given a golden opportunity to innovate and redesign its tourism sector,’ he said, adding that expansions in the wellness sector and the exploration of the east and northern coasts were resources waiting to be untapped.

Sri Lankan authorities released an eighty-page document outlining the operational guidelines for health protocols in the tourism sector on January 21. The document gives step-by-step guidelines to stakeholders in the tourism sector from airlines to hotels to tour operators on the protocols that must be carried out.

Currently, over 92 establishments; accommodation providers & tour operators have been awarded the Safe & Secure Certification to service & accommodate international tourists for the first 14 days. The SLTDA is continuously auditing and awarding certifications. The independent auditing is conducted by KPMG and is paid for by the SLTDA. Several training sessions were conducted on Pandemic Preparedness for SMEs, designed and rolled out together with S4IG Australia and Asian Development Bank. COVID-19 guideline training was conducted partnering with the Market Development Facility (MDF) of Australia and the Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL).

(By Tharushi Weerasinghe)