Sri Lanka is among the fewer 52 countries in the world that has not yet revived its tourism industry with some of the smaller hotels closed and over 500,000 workers still reeling from the toll of COVID-19.

Following a meeting of the UNWTO Ethics Committee meeting that Jetwing Chairman Hiran Cooray attended on Thursday virtually, he noted that it has been found that 152 destinations have opened up with different levels of restrictions but that 52 destinations including Sri Lanka remain completely closed. The UNWTO monitors 217 destinations worldwide.

He pointed out that those countries with better health and hygiene infrastructure were the ones that were opening up and insisted that opening up ‘our’ borders was vital in boosting our image.

Mr. Cooray also noted that according to the UNWTO up to the end of September there was a 70 per cent drop in tourist arrivals compared to last year and US$1.2 trillion lost in tourism income.

The biggest cause of the drop in numbers was attributed to the different levels of restrictions placed by countries.

It is expected that about 100-120 million jobs will be lost due to the pandemic and that a complete revival will take about two-and-a-half to four years, he explained.

Sri Lanka’s health and hygiene standards and sustainability are good and thus the country should not remain closed, Mr. Cooray pointed out insisting that Sri Lanka could also popularise its Ayurveda and immunity- boosting remedies.

The tourism industry on Monday submitted a set of proposals to open up the country for international travel to Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga but is yet to be invited by the COVID -19 Presidential Task Committee to discuss how tourists can visit Sri Lanka, Mr. Cooray said.

Among the proposals submitted is the request to open the airport from December 15 in a bid to give the authorities time to prepare, it was noted.

The Hotel Workers Centre, a trade union for hotel workers, stated that workers are in dire straits as the sector faces a sharp drop in tourists visiting the country. The airport itself has about 1000 taxi services operating today whose owner/drivers are at home and struggling to pay loans obtained to purchase their vehicles.

Hotel staff is heavily dependent on the service charges as wages of most workers in the hotel sector are lowly paid but the Cabinet approved a wages loan for the tourism sector that supports paying those earning less than Rs.20,000.

The Government has assisted the tourism industry with moratoriums on loans granted to the sector with the first given until September this year and the second approved until March next year and another third granted in the budget until September 2021, Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka President Sanath Ukwatte told the Business Times. “But we also need to support our vulnerable employees,” he said insisting that the wages loan of six months provided to the hotel sector to pay wages of workers earning less than Rs.20, 000 or less received Cabinet approval in June this year.

However, he noted that there is delay in its implementation as Treasury approval is sought for this loan to be granted to the sector.

He also noted that the industry has been getting ready to opening up for a revival and as a first step they need to obtain the KPMG certificate of health and hygiene for which a lot of hotels have applied and been inspected and some certified as well.

But opening up still remains in the balance as authorities are said to be “overwhelmed” with the infrastructure and it would be only once the number of new cases reduce that talks of opening up the borders could remain a possibility, Mr. Ukwatte explained.

“The spike in the second wave has delayed our chances of opening up for tourists,” he said explaining that hotels out of Colombo and even restaurants are not receiving guests today and numbers are restricted even for weddings.

“We are doing exactly what we have been asked to do,” he said adding that they do understand the situation which changes daily pointing out that they have been hit as domestic travellers have also curtailed visits to hotels.

Mr. Ukwatte noted that regular overseas clients particularly from Europe were inquiring regarding opening up for the winter.

“We are looking at a different profile of guests like those who will spend a longer period like a month or even longer and avoid the winter there and then go back,” he noted.

By Sunimalee Dias (Sundaytimes)