Tourists suffer as industry bureaucracy is in knots

By Saman Indrajith

Tourists were facing difficulties due to lack of coordination among institutions tasked with promoting tourism, Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), Priyantha Fernando said.

Fernando said that Russians who arrived at Mattala airport on the Red Wings airline had waited for over four hours due to a shortage of immigration officers, among other things.Fernando said that the industry would also suffer from electricity tariff hikes.

“Hoteliers might go to court against it and we will support them,” he said.

Asked by journalists about steps taken to attract Chinese tourists after lifting COVID restrictions, Fernando said that Sri Lanka must try its best attract more tourists.

“We will look at what other countries are doing. We can surely attract the Chinese tourists. We will follow the protocols followed by other countries and take necessary safety precautions,” he said.

Fernando said that they want to attract high end tourists that spend over 500 dollars a day, in the mid to long term. However, currently the average tourist spends about 190 dollars a day, he said.

“We expected winter escapers from countries, like Germany and the UK. We expected more because of heating and other issues in Europe, however Europeans didn’t travel much to long haul destinations,” he said.