Sri Lanka loses millions remaining on UK’s ‘red list’, says world tourism body

By Shabiya Ali Ahlam
Sri Lanka is estimated to be losing Rs.260 million a day by remaining on the UK’s ‘red list’ for travel, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) said.

The council revealed that loss of nearly Rs.8.2 billion per month is expected since UK was one of the top inbound markets for Sri Lanka, representing 10 percent of all inbound arrivals in 2019, just behind India, according to pre-pandemic figures.

“Based on 2019 levels, Sri Lanka’s status as a UK’s ‘red list’ country will pose a significant threat to the nation’s struggling travel and tourism sector and its overall economy, which has been seriously damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the WTTC said in a statement this week. It added that for those countries on the UK’s ‘red list’, even fully vaccinated travellers are forced to quarantine in expensive hotels and bear the cost of COVID-19 tests, which is discouraging UK citizens from travelling to Sri Lanka.

“Every week Sri Lanka remains on the ‘red list’, and the nation’s economy faces losing millions. The restrictions faced by ‘red list’ countries on the UK’s traffic light system are not only damaging the travel and tourism sector, but also the already devastated economy,” said WTTC Senior Vice President Virginia Messina.

She stressed that with international travel coming to almost a complete halt, 214,000 travel and tourism jobs were lost in Sri Lanka last year, disrupting the livelihoods of those who rely on the sector.

According to the WTTC representative, what could rescue the sector is a safe restoration of international mobility because as long as international travel remains stagnant, the path to a global socio-economic recovery will be delayed.

“WTTC believes an acceleration of the vaccine programme is key for the recovery of the economy, and it will act as a catalyst to restart international travel and salvage the struggling travel & tourism sector,” said Messina.

Furthermore, WTTC analysis shows that it is crucial for the Sri Lankan government to ramp up the vaccination rollout and work closely with its UK counterpart, so that the country can be ​re​moved from the economically damaging ‘red list’.

The contribution by the travel and tourism sector to the national GDP contracted to Rs.739.9 billion in 2002 from Rs.1,665.5 billion in 2019. International visitor spending plummeted by 73.8 percent, from Rs.884.1 billion in 2019, to merely Rs.231.9 billion in 2020.