Travel advisories issued by European embassies with warnings of shortage of medicine and riots prevails Sri Lanka have hampered the tourism industry due to the travellers canceling their Sri Lankan trips last minute after looking on embassy websites Alan Christie, Regional General Manager of Radisson Hotels said.
Christie revealed this in a panel discussion on tourism held recently in Colombo. He said that recently one of the world’s largest tour operators agreed to a program to bring European tour groups to Sri Lanka, but they decided to cancel it at the last minute. They cited the fact that the British Embassy had mentioned in the tourist advisories that there was a shortage of medicines. However, since there is no strong mechanism to point out that this is not the case, Mr. Christie said that the tourists listen to the advice given by the embassy and act accordingly.
“Finally, we got to know that these trips have to be canceled. After looking at the website of the embassy, the travelers decided that there was a shortage of medicine in Sri Lanka on their embassy website. There is also a shortage of medicine in the country and there is a riot situation on the roads. The warning is still on the German and Swiss embassy websites, he pointed out.
Mr. Malik J. Fernando, who is an expert in the tourism industry of the tea business in Sri Lanka, pointed out that a strong communication mechanism is needed to make the people who are going to travel to our country understand that the situation is different. He mentioned that a public awareness campaign should be started for that.
“Currently, in our country, there is a promotion aimed at travel agents. They already have an understanding of the importance of tourism in Sri Lanka. But the final decision is made by the customer i.e. the customer who decides whether to visit Sri Lanka or not. We should go for a comprehensive program aimed at the consumers.
