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Bleak winter season for SL tourism

The winter season is looking bleak for tourism and SriLankan Airlines in general, industry officials said.

Chandana de Silva, communications chief at the national airline said the September-October low season for tourism was looking weak.

“There are no new bookings for the coming months,” he said adding that the winter season staring from October onwards was also bleak.

He said normally bookings from the Middle East or Far East sector are made about 2-3 weeks ahead of flying while it’s three weeks to a month and over from Europe.

“By this time we should have seen some bookings for the winter season but it’s not there,” he said.

Tourism has been marred by recent fighting in the north-east region and the uncertainty in Trincomalee, once a popular destination.

Hoteliers also said that bookings were on the low side while the winter season would be a problem. “In some cases, there are no bookings for even there to be cancellations (in case of a new crisis in the war situation),” one hotelier from Bentota said.

SriLankan Airlines also last week increased its fuel surcharge cost on each ticket by 10 to 20 US dollars, which means all air fares also go up.

De Silva said tickets on the Middle East sector and short haul flights to South Asia would cost an extra $10 while long haul flights to Europe would cost $20 more per ticket. The new rates were enforced following rising world market oil prices.

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