Sri Lanka’s tourism authorities are getting nervy as the country continues to experience the raid drop in e Chinese tourist arrivals in the wake of deadly corona-virus outbreak
They fear the island nation is losing its reputation as one of the most affordable and friendly destinations in South Asia for Chinese tourists.
Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka were down by 7.4% in January 2020, from a year earlier, confirming a downturn in Chinese tourists following the deadly corona-virus outbreak.
According to provisional data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), January arrivals were 226,094 as against 244,239 a year earlier.
Drop in tourist arrivals was seen in the Chinese markets with arrivals falling 15.3% to 22,363 as against 26,414 a year earlier.
China is Sri Lanka’s second-largest source market and brought in 167,863 travellers last year. China has over 150 million outbound tourists, w in the island increased dramatically after 2013. Chinese tourist arrivals grew by a remarkable 72.5% in 2010-2016.
Currently occupancy at city hotels are said to be at around 58- 60 per cent that is believed to be far below normal levels, while this drop could increase in the future based on future Chinese arrivals.
Some hotel groups have pointed out that they were likely to lose about 10 per cent of room nights for February following the ban on Chinese travel as cancellations are on the rise.
At least one company has recorded about 2000 cancellations and the total is likely to increase up to around 5000 for the month of February and no re-bookings have been reported either.
Prompted by the Wuhan corona-virus, which has infected at least 17,205 people and killed 361 since it was first identified in central China in December 2019, authorities in China begun placing restrictions in an effort to contain the virus, including suspending all tour groups and the sale of flight and hotel packages for its citizens headed overseas
(LI)