Thomas Cook reinitiates charter flight between Brussels and SL

Thomas Cook Belgium has reinitiated its weekly charter flight to Sri Lanka following a long hiatus; Director of Tour Operating, Thomas Cook Belgium Marc Vandewal arrived on the first charter flight from Brussels to Colombo via Malé last week along with 12 Belgian journalists.

By Cassandra Mascarenhas

“We hope to have one flight a week in winter and are aiming to bring in around 4,000 clients around that time. Each flight has 150 seats for Thomas Cook clients, of whom 100 to 120 come to Sri Lanka and the other 30 to 50 head to the Maldives,” the Director estimated. They also hope to continue a regular service during the summer if the demand is high enough.

Thomas Cook’s Belgian arm has made its presence in Sri Lanka felt for a very long time, since 1999-2000, when it started the first charter flight directly from Brussels to Colombo, which went on until it was obliged to stop because of the bombing of the airport and the other incidents.

However, it was always able to maintain its customer base and the charter operations again in 2006, combining Colombo with Phuket, Thailand.  

When unable to operate the charter flight itself, the company still kept its presence strong by working through regular flights and the big demand that has arisen from the charter operation promises great potential for its continued operations.

“Thomas Cook as a group and the Belgian market has always been at the base of tourist development in Sri Lanka, together of course with our partners Walkers Tours in this particular destination,” said Vandewal.

Vandewal admitted that though these numbers weren’t as high as the volumes other countries could provide in terms of tourist arrivals, he pointed out that the average Belgian tourist was a quality client who looked to stay in at least a four- or five-star hotel, tended to travel within a country a lot instead of staying in one place, spent close to €200 a week and was prone to return to a destination that they enjoyed, making the Belgian tourist base a long term one.

Belgium, being a far smaller country than even Sri Lanka, has to follow certain unique concepts to cater to its small market – in order to reinitiate the charter flight to Sri Lanka, Thomas Cook has negotiated a collaboration with another travel agent in Belgium and together share one plane, with even the crew members split equally between the two agents.

The Government should look into offering tour operators such as Thomas Cook necessary incentives as well. Sri Lanka’s culture, hospitality and other traits should also be marketed better in order to draw in the sectors that aren’t as aware of Sri Lankan tourism yet.

He said that his time in Sri Lanka has been a unique experience so far but he feels that controlled growth, necessary infrastructure and the renovation of hotels are vital in order to sustain tourist growth in Sri Lanka.

“It must be kept in mind that while Sri Lanka is a very attractive tourist destination with much strength, it is not the only one in this part of the world, there are in fact 12 such destinations in this part of the world alone and faces major competition from these destinations which are far more developed in many aspects so Sri Lanka really needs to step up its game,” he cautioned.He warned that Sri Lanka too shouldn’t fall into the trap that many Mediterranean nations fell into at the time they faced a boom in tourism, where the development in the countries were far too explosive, resulting in a negative impact on quality.

Vanedewal also stated that hotels should not look to raise their rates too quickly, which would put off tourists who look to return to Sri Lanka in the future.