30% drop seen in winter arrivals
View(s):The tourism industry is set to hit a downturn in winter with projections made out for a 30 per cent drop during the best season of the year.
The Easter Sunday attacks had an immediate adverse impact on arrivals and sent all tourists in the country packing home.
Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO) President Harith Perera noted that they were expecting a 30 per cent drop for the winter season.
August, being a key month when most tourists visit the island for its famed Kandy Perahera, is also expected to experience a drop in arrivals this year, he said.
This comes in the wake of strong efforts made by an ailing industry to resuscitate a sector with a promotion campaign that is still said to be running through a number of bureaucratic corridors before its full implementation.
This has caused further delays in getting the promotion campaigns underway, which the industry believes was previously held up by officials at the key government promotion agency.
Cabinet approval had long been obtained for the PR firm JWT to carry out the campaign but internal wrangling has set the motion on a slow track following which the roadshows scheduled for the rest of the year were cancelled by the Sri Lankan Tourism board of directors.
Today the industry is faced with tightening its budgets as the costs spiral and the soft loan promised by the government is still wanting while the moratorium on loans is slowing making progress.
In this respect, the industry is said to be writing to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Central Bank Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy requesting them to provide a guarantee on the soft loan without which the banks are hesitant to grant loans to the tourism industry.
Moreover, the Central Bank has also been queried on providing clarity on the interest rates, dates for opening and finishing and whether the grace period is given or not as there is some confusion on the matter.
This is the second letter the industry is sending authorities and they expect a meeting as well as they “appeal on the inaction of the whole chain on the soft loan.”
(SD)