Sri Lanka to reintroduce wartime security measures to Colombo hotels

By Nishel Fernando 
Sri Lanka is to introduce several wartime security measures, including setting up baggage scanners at popular hotels and formulating an emergency plan to ensure the safety of tourists visiting the island, in the aftermath of the Easter bomb attacks that targeted multiple churches and five-star hotels in Colombo.

The tourism industry stakeholders and tourism authorities Sunday evening agreed to reintroduce security checks for guests, when checking into popular hotels in Colombo, including installing x-ray baggage scanners.

As the most hotels don’t possess the latest baggage scanners at the moment, a ministry official told Mirror Business that until the baggage scanners are installed, the metal detectors would be in place to ensure the security of the guests at hotels. 

Today, the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) is expected to issue guidelines for Colombo hotels and their staff, on ways to mitigate such incidents 
in the future. 

Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) and SLTDA Chairman Kishu Gomes told Mirror Business that the SLTDA conducted a two-hour security briefing for Colombo hoteliers yesterday morning, with the participation of an experienced army intelligence officer and an official from the bomb disposal squadron.

During the meeting on Sunday, the government officials and the tourism leaders also decided to formulate an emergency plan to face such incidents in the future.

The SLTDA is expected to formulate the emergency plan in the coming days in consultation with the private sector as a 
precautionary measure.

The ministry officials noted that the SLTDA had such an emergency plan during the civil war period, which was abandoned later, as the country returned to normalcy. 

According to the Tourism Development, Wildlife and Christian Religious Affairs Ministry, the foreigner death toll yesterday rose to 40, which include foreign nationals from India, Portugal, Turkey, China, the United Kingdom, United States and Australia, while 30 are currently receiving treatment. 

The guests in the blast-hit Shangri La Hotel Colombo, The Kingsbury Hotel and Cinnamon Grand have been transferred to other hotels in Colombo while arrangements are also being made through travel agents to transfer the pre-bookings made into these hotels. 

A ministry official remarked that it’s likely that these three hotels would be temporarily closed until the renovations are concluded. 

Shangri-La in Colombo already announced that the hotel would be closed down until further notice.

The government has also extended its support to these hotels to renovate the damaged properties. 

“We discussed only on how to manage the current situation. We will meet again to discuss the short, medium and long-term strategies to mitigate the impact to the tourism industry from the attacks,” the ministry official said. 

According to the government sources, the SLTPB plans to amend the finalised version of the three-year global promotional campaign, which was submitted to the Cabinet two weeks back, in order to incorporate the latest developments to the campaign.