Sri Lanka has lost over US Dollars one billion revenue to the tourism sector due to the ongoing protest at Galle Face and unrest in the country.
In addition, the average tourism arrivals which were around 4,000 per day have also reduced to around 1,000 due to street protests, lack of fuel and long queues, Mount Lavinia Hotel Chairman and former Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) President Sanath Ukwatte said.
He said that many star class hotels centered around the protest area in the Galle Face area had witnessed resident guests moving out to other hotels. “This is because of the noise and commotion created by the protesters and also due to restricted movement for tourists in the vicinity. This has resulted in around 60% revenue drop for these hotels”he said.
“Some tourists have changed their bookings and goes to other hotels outside Colombo while some have totally cancelled their bookings and moved them to countries like the Maldives.”
“In addition there have been many cancellations for these hotels and we expect the total revenue loss from the Galle face protest, though peaceful, to be around US$ 1 billion.
It’s sad to note that tourism was picking up and Sri Lanka earned around US$ 4 million revenues in January 2021 and this increased to US$ 148 million in January 2022. “Sri Lanka is aiming for a revenue target of US$ 4 billion from tourism receipts for 2022 and I don’t think this is possible now.”
Ukwatte also said though their currencies have a bigger buying power in Sri Lanka due to a weak Sri Lanka rupee unrest has made tourists to think otherwise and skip Sri Lanka. He said that in addition since the Easter Sunday attack that happened three years COVID-19 pandemic, and other negative developments in Sri Lanka and the Rambukkana incident along with the ongoing Russian Ukraine conflict in Sri Lanka he estimates that around US$ 8 billion revenue to the tourism sector was deprived.
However, in November 2021, when the government removed all quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated tourists, encouraging vacationers to come to the island state there was a pick up but this has once again reversed.
“Finance Minister Ali Sabry said before leaving for the United States that the tourism industry had lost about US$10 billion.” Mount Lavinia Hotel Chairman Sanath Ukwatte.
