Colombo - With its capital under curfew
following devastating Easter Sunday bomb attacks on churches and
upmarket hotels, Sri Lanka is filled with fear, horror and grief
and tourists who have been flocking to the Indian Ocean island
could cancel in droves.
A tweet posted on the travel booking website First Choice
captured the trepidation among holidaymakers, while some
airlines and travel agents said they would waive cancellation
charges for people scheduled to travel imminently.
"What are you doing about the holidays you have booked to
that country?" tourist Judith Ann Clayton asked on the social
media site.
"Clearly it is unsafe for anyone to go there."
Others set to travel said they would not to be cowed into
cancelling.
"Not giving in to terror. We want to support you in your
time of need. Never gave any thought about cancelling our trip,"
Facebook user John Karmouche said in a post.
Named by the Lonely Planet guide for independent travellers
as the best country to visit in 2019, Sri Lanka had rebuilt its
image as a tropical paradise after crushing a long-running
separatist insurgency by ethnic minority Tamils a decade ago.
Arrivals of 2.3 million last year were up by more than 400
percent on 2009 levels, according Sri Lanka Tourism Development
Authority data.
But the suicide bombers who killed at least 290 people,
including 32 foreigners, and wounded 500 have in all likelihood
ended the boom in tourism for some time.
Denmark's richest man, Anders Holch Povlsen, and his wife
lost three of their four children in a blast at one of the
hotels. A British mother and son were killed at a breakfast
buffet and two Australians were also among the dead.
At Colombo airport, departing holidaymakers were relieved to
be getting out.
"There have been a lot of messages from home," said British
teacher James Turner, who was leading a school cricket tour.
Tourists were also arriving but many said they would steer
clear of the capital.
"We're getting straight out of Colombo," said Briton Ruth
Adams, on holiday with her two children.
Security personnel observe three minutes of silence as a tribute to victims, two days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, near St Anthony Shrine in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Picture: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters
WARNINGS
Tourism was Sri Lanka's third largest and fastest growing
source of foreign currency, after private remittances and
textile and garment exports, accounting for almost $4.4 billion
or 4.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018.
"The attacks will not only impact already weak economic
activity (real GDP growth was at a 17-year low of 3.2 percent in
2018), but also the country's relatively vulnerable external
liquidity position," Citi Asia Economics said in a note that
warned the hardest blow would fall on tourism.
A U.S. State Department travel advisory warned of the danger
of "terrorist groups" plotting more attacks. Targets could
include tourist locations, transport hubs, shopping malls,
hotels, places of worship and airports.
Other governments, including Japan and Australia, have also
cautioned citizens planning travel to Sri Lanka.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Australians "reconsider
your need to travel and avoid all affected areas".
JTB, Japan's largest travel agency, has waived cancellation
charges, and modified its package tours leaving Japan before May
10 to avoid risky locations, like Colombo, and will decide later
on tours leaving after May 11, a spokeswoman said.
The inside of St. Sebastian's Church which was damaged in a blast in Negombo, north of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Picture: Chamila Karunarathne/AP
Two major airlines in neighbouring India, state-owned Air
India and the largest carrier Indigo, owned by Interglobe
Aviation, said they would waive rescheduling and
cancellation charges for travel scheduled before April 24.
India was the single largest source of visitors last year,
with 425,000, while 266,000 came from China, Sri Lanka's
newfound friend, and more than 254,000 from old colonial power
Britain.
The peak season for tourism in Sri Lanka is between December
and March, while the rainy monsoon season lies between May and
September.
MakeMyTrip.com, one of India's largest travel booking
portals, said in a statement that it was too early to quantify
the impact of the attacks on tourist traffic to Sri Lanka, but
anticipated that some would defer travel or go elsewhere.
There were no immediate cancellations on yatra.com, another
Indian online booking portal, but new inquiries and bookings had
slowed, said chief operating officer Sharat Dhall.
Visitors come for the glorious vistas across the forests in
the national parks, the surf crashing on sandy beaches, verdant
tea plantations, Buddhist temples and charming colonial towns.
The government's latest tourism campaign celebrates the
island's charms with the simple slogan 'So Sri Lanka'.
After Sunday's outrage it could become a lament.