Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena has assured hoteliers that the government will give them maximum financial relief to revive the lucrative tourism industry hit by the country’s worst terror attack on Easter Sunday that killed 253 people, including 42 foreigners.
Tourism accounts for about five per cent of Sri Lanka’s economy, with India, Britain and China being the main markets.
India is the largest source market for Sri Lanka, which received 2.3 million tourists from around the world in 2018.
Around 450,000 Indian tourists visited Sri Lanka last year and the island nation was expecting the total Indian tourist arrivals to cross one million in 2019.
President Sirisena acknowledged during his meeting on Monday with the country’s hoteliers that the tourism and hotel industries were worst hit after the string of powerful blasts ripped through three churches and as many luxury hotels.
Sirisena requested Central Bank Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy to provide “maximum financial relief” immediately to the hoteliers, Sunday Times reported.
The Easter Sunday blasts were the first time that tourists were specifically targeted in the country.
Following the bombings, the US, Britain, Australia, India and Israel warned their nationals against visiting Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka’s Tourism Bureau Chairman Kishu Gomes predicted on Monday that tourist arrivals in Colombo will fall by 50 percent over the next two months.
Tourist arrivals in areas outside Colombo are likely to fall by about 30 percent as a result of the attacks, Gomes told reporters at a travel conference in Dubai.
Sri Lanka was facing lost tourism revenues of about $750 million this year, he told Reuters.
SriLankan Airlines’ chief executive Vipula Gunatilleka told Reuters that the carrier had a 10 percent increase in cancellations last week and expects that number to rise.
Several hotels are also reported large number of cancellations.
“We are looking at providing some concessions to the industry for them to be able to maintain their viability for the next few months,” Gomes told reporters.
A collapse in tourism would deal a severe blow to the island’s economy and financial markets, and potentially force it to seek further assistance from the International Monetary Fund.
Gomes said confidence could return if the military is able to give assurances on security.
“If the military can come out over the next few days and make a strong statement with respect to security that’s when we will obviously offer a bit of confidence and try and work against that anticipation,” the tourism chief said.
Sri Lanka’s tourism industry faced a difficult time until a decade ago due to the three-decade civil war with the LTTE. However, in the recent years the island nation has emerged as a top tourist destination in Asia.
