Tourism to bounce back in one year if authorities can get recovery plan mix right

Dileep Mudadeniya

Pic by Kushan Pathiraja

By Shabiya Ali Ahlam

Top representatives of the country’s tourism industry yesterday said the sector is likely to bounce back in one year if the authorities can get the recovery plan mix right in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday attacks that killed over 250 people and injured over 500 more.

Acknowledging Sri Lanka was not the only country in the world to be attacked by terrorists, given the number of incidents witnessed globally in the recent years, Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts Brand Marketing Head Dileep Mudadeniya expressed there is hope for speedy recovery with authorities responding fast while implementing right policies.

“In Sri Lanka, looking at the history following the LTTE attacks, the country had then bounced back fairly quickly and following the Easter Attack the country is looking at approximately one year to get into track,” Mudadeniya said.

Mudadeniya noted that while there are a number of independent variables, such as media exposure and risk perception among others, what can be formulated immediately is a ‘recovery 
marketing plan’.

“The government should focus on implementing a recovering marketing plan as fast as possible. There are enough and more examples to follow by looking what other countries had done.
You don’t need millions of rupees for this, it requires simple solutions. It can be executed across all levels, the citizens, organisation and the government,” he shared.

According to him, a classic example to follow in this regard is how Egypt has bounced back following series of terror attacks at different points of time, the most recent being the explosion that took place near the Giza pyramids two weeks ago.

Meanwhile, Mudadeniya pointed out that Sri Lanka is “slightly” in advantage given that he 21/4 incident took place during the off peak period, thus giving the industry some breathing space to gear up for the peak seasons, which kick off from November.

However, he stressed that the industry needs to be mindful of the elections that is slated to take place at the latter part of this year as they might have a negative implication on arrivals.