Hotels in Colombo open for dine-ins, deliveries
View(s):Hotels in Colombo are nearly empty but continue to be open for dine-in, takeaway or deliveries.
Despite Sri Lanka going under a curfew in its combat against the coronavirus, hotels in Colombo will continue to remain open for guests and those wanting to buy food, City Hotels Association President M. Shanthikumar told the Business Times on Thursday.
He explained that a few hotels are keeping one of their food outlets open to provide food as takeaway and delivery options and dine-in for those provided with curfew passes.
“It costs more money to keep the hotel shut,” he pointed out noting that while each hotel is providing staff transport to work on a shift basis others have been sent home with pay.
Resorts are completely closed for operations as there is no food supply either and with no guests there is a skeletal staff at these hotels for routine maintenance, Connaissance De Ceylon Chairman Chandra Wickramasinghe said.
“All hotels are closing with no clients and no steady food supply but in areas like Kandy, Galle, Weligama and Mirissa and even Arugam Bay, guests are staying mostly in the informal sector,” he said.
Some tourists that have booked to stay in the country for the next few months are continuing to stay like one German couple who believes Sri Lanka’s situation is safer in terms of the coronavirus compared to Germany.
In the meantime, only Qatar Airways, Edelweiss and SriLankan Airlines are continuing to operate ferry flights or flights with no passengers which will be arriving in the country, according to the Civil Aviation Authority official website schedule on flights to the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA).
Meanwhile other sources said that three 5-star properties in Colombo are likely to shut operations from next Tuesday.
- (SD)