• Fuel shortage hampers tourism industry
• Concerns over perahera season bookings
• Tourism promotion programmes postponed

By Skandha Gunasekara Given the increase in tourists recorded in July, the Government is growing confident that the tourism industry will see better times in the coming months. However, the industry itself is not so optimistic, pointing out that recent numbers do not depict the real demography of arrivals and that shortages, especially of fuel and the linked reduction in mobility, remain a major challenge. From 1-26 July, 39,895 tourists visited the island. The numbers indicate an increase of 7,039 from June and a near 10,000 increase compared to May, which recorded the lowest arrivals, with 30,207 foreign visitors.  According to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), the top five markets for July in order were the UK (6,557), India (4,510), Germany (2,846), Canada (2,801), and France (2,667).  SLTDA Chairman Priantha Fernando said that their immediate concern was ensuring a steady fuel supply to the industry for the coming perahera season.  “The fuel issued for transportation of tourists has improved in the last two or three days; fuel has been made available through the Army camps and the Sri Lanka Transport Board depots in limited quantities. What we are concerned about is the upcoming perahera season, which has already had around 40,000 bookings made with travel agents. We need to make sure there are no shortcomings during their stay. This is the immediate focus.” One million expected by end 2022: SLTDA Fernando said that they expected to see an increase in the number of arrivals to at least 60,000 in August. “During August we hope that we can get our figures up to about 60,000-65,000 arrivals. This is nothing much when compared with previous years, but under the current circumstances, it is a major improvement. Last month’s arrivals were around 32,000, while we have recorded about 37,000 so far this month. We expect to end July with about 42,000-45,000, so we are hoping to get more than 60,000 in August.” He said the Government had postponed plans to hold promotion roadshows next month in India as the travel trade was busy with incoming tourists and noted that promotional activities at the end of August would help distance the country from any negative publicity due to the recent political turmoil.  “We postponed five road shows which were to be held in August in India. We had to postpone these at least till the end of August because the travel agencies and tour operators who want to take part have some other events with the perahera that they are busy with. The end of August will also be a better climate to carry out promotions, especially with the ongoing issues which are receiving wide publicity even in India. Conducting promotions right now can have a negative impact and even nullify what we are planning to achieve.”  Nevertheless, Fernando was confident of closing the year with an optimistic one million in total arrivals – an increase from the initially expected 800,000 visitors. “We are planning to end the year with close to one million. Earlier we had set a target of 800,000-850,000 but as things are, we feel that we should be able to get closer to one million. In spite of the travel warnings, the UK tops the list right now for this month’s arrivals. Considering other developed countries like Canada and the US, the flow has been good. We are confident that we will be able to counter most of the negative publicity and get the tourists back for the season starting in November.” Don’t count expats on holiday: SLAITO However, the Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO) showed less optimism, pointing out that the increased number of arrivals in July were mostly Sri Lankan diaspora and expats coming for the summer holidays. “What needs to be understood is that these are the summer holidays for Sri Lankans living in Canada, England, Germany, France, Italy, and Australia. These are all members of the diaspora that have come into Sri Lanka and we haven’t had that many tourists,” SLAITO Executive Member Devindre Senaratne told The Sunday Morning.  He said the unavailability of basic necessities such as fuel and electricity were the main factors discouraging tourists from visiting. “We are simply not having tourists, because of the power cuts, gas issues, and fuel shortage; it is with great difficulty that we provide transport to our clients. The number that shows about 39,000 is mostly Sri Lankans in those countries who have foreign passports.”   He said that even August, which usually recorded large numbers, may not be as successful this year. “August is a very popular month for Sri Lanka, especially for family holidays. However, we will be restricted to handling the minimum because we are not promoting. Tour operators abroad don’t aggressively promote us but they serve clients who really want to come to Sri Lanka. Obviously we will have a decline compared to previous years.” He asserted that tour operators were reluctant to promote Sri Lanka as they were unable to provide full service due to the shortages in the country.  “We cannot promote at the moment because Sri Lanka has no power, no gas, and limited stocks of fuel. It is with the greatest difficulty that we provide the full service to the client. We somehow manage the issues internally and provide uninterrupted services. But by any chance if we have a larger number, we won’t be able to serve them.  “It is not that we don’t want tourists to come but the tour operators don’t want to take the risk of aggressively selling and bringing big numbers if we can’t provide proper service in the country. There is also the issue of travel warnings against Sri Lanka in the major tourism generating markets like England, Germany, and so on.” However, he opined that the industry would remain persistent in uplifting tourism in the coming months.   Govt. to blame: THASL Hoteliers too are not organising promotional activities due to the current economic and political instability.   “We are not doing promotions right now, but if the country’s situation stabilises both economically and politically, the people who have made bookings for the coming weeks and months will start to arrive. We expect that there won’t be any cancellations, but this depends on how the country behaves in the next couple of days,” The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) President M. Shanthikumar said.  Contradicting the SLTDA Chairman, Shanthikumar alleged that authorities had failed to provide fuel to the hotels, causing significant hardships in their tourism activities.  “The hotels are facing a major issue of procuring fuel. Whatever the promises given by the Government and the authorities have not worked. The Government said that its depots and the military camps were to provide us with fuel, but it has not happened; we have not been able to get fuel this way. The hotel owners have to find ways to get diesel to run their generators and fuel for transport. We keep on asking the Government to assist us in getting fuel, but up to now help has not come.”