• At meeting chaired by Tourism Minister, airlines stress SL will have to tackle adverse travel advisories, step up PR campaign before free-tickets promotion
• Sub-committee comprising SLTPB, BAR, THASL and SLAITO to meet next week
• Airline sources confirm inbound traffic has dipped by 50%

By Charumini de Silva

The tourism industry yesterday met with the airlines operating to Sri Lanka to discuss a strategy to achieve a faster revival post-Easter Sunday terror attacks.

The meeting was productive with exchange of views from both sides on concerns and challenges.

Airlines had emphasised that before they could extend support, Sri Lanka will have to address the adverse travel advisories by talking to the diplomatic missions in Sri Lanka as well as Sri Lankan foreign missions overseas.

They stressed that this exercise must be done simultaneously with an aggressive PR campaign to update the world on the situation in a single credible voice at this is crucial point of time. In addition, ideas were shared from their previous experiences in markets they had served and what actions the countries and the airlines had taken to revive the tourism industry.

The airline industry has suggested that Sri Lanka quickly needs to implement confidence-building measures before airlines can launch an aggressive support campaign.

Yesterday’s meeting was crucial as tourism became the most affected after the 21 April Easter Sunday extremist terror attacks killed over 250 people, including nearly 50 foreigners, injured over 500 and damaged three star-class hotels. 

As per industry data, tourist arrivals have declined by 50-70% since the attacks. ForwardKeys, which forecasts future travel patterns by analysing over 17 million flight booking transactions a day, revealed that a tidal wave of cancellations has hit Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the horrendous terror attacks of Easter Sunday.

It said in the three days immediately after the bombings, cancellations of existing bookings surged 86.2% whilst new bookings fell away. Forward bookings for July and August, which had been running 2.6% ahead of last year, as of 20 April, fell to 0.3% behind as of 23 April.

According to ForwardKeys, prior to the Easter Sunday atrocities, Sri Lanka’s tourism industry was showing healthy growth. Flight bookings to Sri Lanka in 2019 (1st Jan to 20th April) were 3.4% up on the same period in 2018.

Airline sources also confirmed that by this week, the inbound traffic has dropped by 50%. May is traditionally a low month for tourism and the Easter Sunday attacks compounded the situations.

As an outcome of yesterday’s meeting they have appointed another committee comprising Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB), Board of Airline Representatives (BAR), The Hotels Associations of Sri Lanka (THASL) and Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO). The committee is scheduled to meet next week for further discussions.  

Cabinet sub-committee on tourism to meet on Monday