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Last Updated : 2024-04-25 04:58:00
Compared to the 180,429 visitors in April last year, arrivals in April 2019 dropped 7.5 percent to 166,975 due to the terror attacks on the 21st.
The Tourism Ministry anticipates a 30 percent dip by yearend, i.e. achieve around 2 million arrivals in total for this year. With 0.9 million actual arrivals in the first 4 months of the year, the expectation is for another 1.1 million tourists to visit Sri Lanka, over the balance 8 months.
In the aftermath of the horrific Easter Sunday bombings, the obvious and immediate reaction is to increase security measures and regain tourists with marketing campaigns. However, a more credible approach would also be to overcome internal conflicts and ward off terrorism. This in turn would be a great signal for tourists who would no longer see any danger of travelling to Sri Lanka.
The swift action taken thus far; to reassure citizens that they are safe and visitors that ‘life goes on’- will no doubt ensure that the long term fall out is limited.
More resilient to shocks
The hotel industry is becoming more resilient to shocks from terrorism. In effect, the time that it takes for destinations to recover from these shocks has significantly decreased over the past 15 years. It took New York hotels 34 months to recover from the 9/11 attacks as compared to the 12 months Madrid required to recover from the 2003 Train bombs. The World Travel and Tourism Council pegs a 13-month recovery as the average time needed for affected capital cities to return to prior levels of tourism.
As per the Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism, the country can bounce back within 13 months or even earlier. He is optimistic that it will revert to growth mode in two months. This can only happen when the Ministry of Tourism works in tandem with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministries of Aviation, Culture, Economic affairs and all stakeholders in the private sector - where everyone is on the ‘same page with a common purpose’.
Welcomes financial relief package
The travel and tourism industry has already welcomed the government’s financial relief package to support the industry. With declining occupancy rates, the next 12 – 13 months will be a difficult period for hotels. The earliest signs of recovery (getting-out-of-red) will be when occupancy gains compare with the year before. How soon this occurs is dependent on how successfully the government undertakes the following action:
To summarize, the government and the hospitality industry alike should take measures to re-boost the tourism sector once the situation has normalized, focusing on bringing back the tourists, changing perceptions through media by creating impactful communications campaigns and collaborating to develop strategies to attract
new tourists.
(Shafeek Wahab – Editor, ‘Hospitality Sri Lanka’, Consultant, Trainer and Ex-Hotelier could be contacted on: shafeekwahab@gmail.com)
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