SL’s hopes of reviving tourism shattered with Indians looking at alternative destinations

Sri Lanka’s hope to revive its hard-hit tourism sector this year is likely to be shattered, as its key source market is exploring alternative destinations.

The economic mismanagement that has caused shortages in essential items and power cuts are playing havoc in the lives of its citizens and has captured the attention of the world. The reality of the ground situation is being closely observed.

The observations have put off the potential visitors from exploring Sri Lanka in the coming months. According to international media reports, Sri Lanka’s largest source market India is looking elsewhere to send its holidaymakers.
Travel industry news site Skift, in its report on Sri Lanka published last week said Indian travel agencies had informed that many of their customers were opting to reschedule their travel plans, with several of them choosing short-haul destinations like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, the Maldives, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Nepal.

“Travellers and travel companies of Sri Lanka’s largest inbound market — India — realise they are walking a tightrope. As a result, the search is now on for alternative destinations,” reported Skift.

The island nation is a favourite of Indian consumers, due to easy access. India had been Sri Lanka’s biggest source market before COVID and continued to remain so, even post COVID.

However, the current political turmoil in the country coupled with the economic crisis threatens to cripple the tourism industry and travel companies are wary, Skift said.

Earlier this month, Air India announced it would reduce its India-Sri Lanka services from 16 flights per week to 13 flights per week, from April 9, due to poor demand.

Air India operated 16 flights a week, daily flights from Delhi and nine flights a week from Chennai.

Sri Lanka also lost tourist traffic from Russia, due to the Russian-Ukraine war. Russia was the largest source market for Sri Lanka for several months until the conflict erupted.