Tourism industry begins to recover after attacks, election is next hurdle

• Tourist arrivals from Europe and Asia-Pacific halved in July from 2018 
• Pace of winter bookings slower than previous years- Shangri-La 
• “Of course, election will have an impact on tourism”- official  

(Colombo) REUTERS: 

Sri Lanka’s tourism industry, badly hurt by the Easter day bombings, is showing signs of gradual recovery, industry executives say, although a national election later this year is likely to weigh on holiday season arrivals. The island nation’s tourism sector, one of the country’s top revenue streams, suffered a massive blow following the April 21 Islamist militant bombings of churches and luxury hotels, which killed more than 250 people, including  42 foreign nationals.

Tourist arrivals from Europe and Asia-Pacific, which together account for 90 percent of the total visitors to Sri Lanka, nearly halved in July from a year ago, according to the latest data from the country’s Tourism Development Authority.

SriLankan Airlines, the country’s lone carrier, will likely post a loss of as much as US $ 160 million in the financial year to end-March 2020 as it lost business after the attacks, its chief executive officer told Reuters. To be sure, Sri Lanka is trying to woo tourists back: it has offered a raft of discount deals, scrapped the fee on tourist visas for 48 nations, including China, India and the United Kingdom and simplified the visa process for visitors from those countries.

Those moves have started to pay off, hospitality executives said.

“(We are) almost 50 percent booked for the winter and see a pickup in bookings,” said Sanjeewani Yogarajah, an executive at Hikkaduwa Beach Hotels in the southern coastal belt of Hikkaduwa, 112 km (69 miles) from the capital Colombo and popular for water sports. “This time also we hope we will get around 90 percent (bookings) by winter,” she added. Tourist footfall is gradually reviving, said the high-end Taj Samudra and Shangri-La hotels in Colombo.

While the Taj, operated by the Indian Hotels Company, said it was hoping for a recovery as the winter holiday season draws nearer, the Shangri-La hotel, which is part of Shangri-La Asia, said the pace of winter bookings was slower than previous years.

The holiday season, from November through January, is the busiest time of the year for Sri Lanka’s tourism industry, which accounts for nearly 5 percent of the country’s GDP and was its third-biggest source of foreign exchange in 2018.