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Two post-COVID tourists seen enjoying a stroll on the rail track in Colpetty near the beach yesterday – Pic by Lasantha Kumara
By Charumini de Silva
Ahead of the winter season, the airline industry yesterday said passenger loads to Sri Lanka were seeing a sharp increase, with the majority being from Eastern and Central Europe.
“We have noticed a sharp rise in forward bookings in the past few weeks. The passenger numbers are increasing significantly,” Board of Airline Representatives (BAR) President Dimuthu Tennakoon told the Daily FT. The industry believes the distribution of vaccines has led to a prompt and orderly restoration in global air travel.
“The optimism for travel has begun,” he said, adding that all airlines operating to Colombo had seen an uptick in passenger loads. Sri Lanka saw the highest tourist arrivals growth post-COVID in September with 13,547, propelling the cumulative figure to over 37,000.
Tourist arrivals in September recorded a sharp increase of 169% from August, largely influenced by the relaxed travel restrictions, aggressive vaccination programs around the world and growing consumer confidence. Arrivals in the first nine months were 37,924 – a major development since the reopening of borders on 21 January.
The Tourism Ministry said around 1,000 Russian tourists were expected to visit Sri Lanka next month. “Russian tourists have made forward bookings for the next month. The flights are almost full,” Tourism Ministry said.
As per the data, the UL 534 flights from Moscow to Colombo scheduled for 16, 23 and 30 October have 229, 250 and 265 forward bookings respectively. The latest flight from the destination on 10 October had 173 passengers.
National Carrier SriLankan Airlines launched direct flights between Moscow and Colombo in July, after a break of six years.
The Health Ministry said over 12 million Sri Lankan citizens had received both doses of their vaccine against COVID-19 as of last week.
“The travel demand has improved. Majority of the forward bookings are for the winter season,” Tennakoon said.
He also said the relaxation of travel restrictions would give airlines a “shot in the arm” as the sector had not been allowed to operate properly for almost two years.
The vaccination drive globally has paved the way for people to travel around the world.
For the last 18 months, Sri Lanka had observed strict quarantine measures for travellers and a series of lockdowns to control the COVID-19 pandemic. These measures had been extremely hard-hitting for all tourism industry stakeholders, including nearly three million dependents due to the twin crises of the Easter Sunday attacks and COVID-19.
The Government announced a slew of measures to relax the entry rule to revive the COVID-hit tourism industry. These include exempting on-arrival PCR for fully vaccinated travellers who receive a negative result on a PCR conducted within 72 hours of departure and deactivation of Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) for fully vaccinated international travellers.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is of the view that the tourism industry must gradually be opened up with lesser restrictions for international travellers along with the aggressive vaccination drive, as it is a key foreign exchange earning sector for the economy.
Sri Lanka lost around $ 10 billion in foreign exchange earnings, which generate $ 4.5 billion annually, due to the pandemic since last year. The COVID-19 pandemic has raged from March 2020 onwards and the latest drop in arrivals reinforce the continuous struggles of the tourism industry.
