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Tourists cancel 80% of hotel pre-bookings

20 Jul 2022

BY Dinitha Rathnayake  A total of 80% of the pre-bookings of hotels in Sri Lanka by foreign tourists have been cancelled, The Morning learns. Speaking to The Morning, The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) Head M. Shanthikumar said that the arrival of tourists has dropped by 40%. “Normally, we get around 125,000 tourists in the month of July, but this year we only received 25,000. Most of the cancellations were reported from Europe and the UK.”  Shanthikumar said that these countries have issued travel warnings on Sri Lanka, adding that the instability of the country and the current political situation are the main reasons for this situation. “We have around 240 hotels under our Association, and all are running at a loss.” Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) stated that the number of tourists coming to Sri Lanka has decreased by 60% during the course of last month. SLTDA Director General Dhammika Wijayasinghe, speaking to the media, said that this situation has arisen in view of the crisis atmosphere in the country. According to the SLTDA, 106,500 tourists arrived in the island in March 2022, while the tourist arrivals have decreased to 32,856 in the month of June, Wijayasinghe said. July and August are the two months when most tourists visit the island. During those two months, the tourists mostly visit the Eastern part of the country. Apart from that, more tourists tend to visit the Kandy area in August. Current shortages of fuel and gas also affect the tourism industry, while hoteliers have urged the Government to ensure the continued provision of fuel to the sector so that tourists can visit the country.


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