Sri Lanka to lure Asian visitors as Europe closes
Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is seeking to attract short haul travelers mainly from Asian markets as some of country’s key markets are closing the borders due to a possible second wave of the COVID19 pandemic.
Under the circumstances the authorities are hoping to attract at least Asian countries in short haul travel, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau ( SLTPB) Acting MD Madubhani Perera told the Business Times.
She explained that at first they had hoped to attract travellers from China but since they closed up it was not possible. Australia and Europe have also clamped down overseas travel so the focus will have to be on Asian markets.
However, Ms. Perera pointed out that without any exact opening date no decision could be made on which markets could be attracted to the country.
Until such time authorities are engaging Sri Lanka’s overseas missions to carry out webinars to educate the travel industry and media in those markets on the preparatory work carried out in Sri Lanka.
“While Sri Lanka is thankfully ok, hopefully we won’t have a situation with an eruption again but globally our main markets in India, China, Australia and Europe are not ready to go out yet,” Jetwing Chairman Hiran Cooray said on Tuesday.
The highest number of tourists arrives from India and China ( in third place) and both these markets have closed up. Even though China opened up for overseas travel they soon shut down as a result of a virus outbreak again. Australia and Europe are also not yet ready to move out as citizens have been cautioned by their governments against travel overseas in a bid to contain the pandemic. Sri Lanka has been receiving a large number of its traditional visitors from Europe.
Countries like Spain, Belgium, Italy, France and the UK, according to foreign reports, are seeing a resurgence in COVID-19 cases and are some of the worst-hit countries.
The industry seems cautious now compared to just a couple of months back when they insisted that the airport opening should commence the resurgence of tourist arrivals in a bid to overcome the financial and economic crisis faced by them.
Commenting on the closure of these key markets, Mr. Cooray said “we are going to suffer” however, he noted “We don’t want to import the virus and as a responsible citizen let’s be careful and cautious.” Responding to the implementation of the rules and regulations that some in the industry were too strict to comply with that would create deterrent to tourists visiting the country, however, he believed they are “now important to stop the importation of the virus.”
Sri Lanka was scheduled to reopen its borders in August but these plans have been postponed since the government wants the repatriation of Sri Lankans from abroad to be completed first.