Tourism chief bets on faster industry revival

From left: The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka President Sanath Ukwatte, SLTDA and SLTPB Chairman Kishu Gomes, Brigadier Sumith Atapattu and Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators President Harith Perera
Pic by Waruna Wanniarachchi 

By Nishel Fernando
Sri Lanka Tourism chief Kishu Gomes expressed his confidence on the revival of the country’s tourism industry in less than 13 months, in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday bombings and is optimistic that it will revert back to growth mode in two months. 

“I’m sure it wouldn’t take 13 months for us to recover. With security being assured, I’m confident that we will be able to revert to the current declining trend get on to growing mode to achieve the numbers that we have targeted,” Gomes told reporters in Colombo yesterday. Gomes based his estimation on the average recovery period of countries that faced a similar situation over the past couple of years, including Indonesia, Thailand, France and the United Kingdom.

He said Sri Lanka hasn’t experienced a single attack since April 21, while noting that the incidents that followed the Easter Sunday attacks were related to the search operations carried out by the police and tri-forces. 

Representing the security forces, Brigadier Sumith Atapattu said that 70-80 percent of the cadre of the organisation behind the bombings has already been captured and around 15,000 troops have been deployed in the country to assist the public in addition to search operations and investigations. 

According to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), the tourist arrivals declined by 7.5 percent year-on-year (YoY) to 166,975 in April, while the arrivals in the first four months indicated a growth of 2.2 percent YoY, reaching 0.9 million tourist arrivals. 

The United Kingdom was the largest source market in April, followed by India and China. 

The Chinese market fell 18.3 percent to 14,263 tourists, while arrivals from Australia fell 31.8 percent to 9,565 visitors.

Despite 37 countries issuing travel advisories warning against visiting Sri Lanka, Gomes revealed that tourist arrivals this month have declined only by 60 percent, compared to the same month, last year, with on average 1,700 tourists visiting the country on a daily basis. 

According to the SLTDA data, 8,590 tourists have visited the country from May 1 to May 5. 

The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka President Sanath Ukwatte said that the occupancy level of hotels countrywide has now fallen to 10 percent.

As the foreign tour operators have cancelled bookings while halting any future bookings, Sri Lanka is now receiving free independent travellers (FIT), who most likely stay at accommodation in the informal sector. 

However, Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators President Harith Perera stressed that FIT tourists are important to communicate to the world that Sri Lanka is a safe destination.
Both Perera and Ukwatte urged the government to issue a statement in one voice with the inclusion of representatives of security forces to the world through international media to communicate that the security of the country is restored to build the confidence among tourists. 

Perera recommended that the country needs to hire the services of an internationally recognised security firm to carry out a security audit to showcase that Sri Lanka is a safe destination, pointing out that some destinations have taken such initiatives to restore confidence. 

He noted that if the government is short of funds, the industry could come forward in funding the initiative. 

Gomes said that the government is likely to conduct a joint security briefing for local and international media next week as the first step towards softening the travel advisories. 
In addition, the government plans to award an integrated PR campaign to J. Walter Thompson in coming weeks to change the negative sentiment towards the country.

Tourism Development, Wildlife and Christian Religious Affairs Minister John Amaratunga is expected to present a proposal to the Cabinet of Ministers next week. 

“In short to medium, we will be working with a global PR company; the integrated PR campaign will change the sentiment from negative to neutral to positive. 

As we create that positive sentiment, then we will be working with a global advertising agency in the short term to promote the country’s tourism products,” Gomes said. 

Moving forward, he stressed that enhancing the value proposition of Sri Lanka’s tourism product offering will be crucial to achieve the targets envisaged by the sector.

He expects the decline of tourist arrivals to contain to 30 percent this year with a loss of US $ 1.5 billion in tourism earnings.