Sri Lankan Tourism Stands Up to Ravages of Civil War
February 24, 1998 - 0:0
COLOMBO Bomb blasts in Sri Lanka's financial hub and against the country's holiest Buddhist temple may have dented investor confidence but paradoxically the attacks may be a blessing in disguise for the tourism industry. Sri Lanka's Tourism Minister Dharmasiri Senanayake said the number of foreign holiday makers visiting the country had gone up despite the bombings. Tourists were unfazed by terrorist attacks, which they saw as a global phenomenon, he said.
The hospitality trade had improved since the October truck bombing of the World Trade Center in which 35 of the 105 wounded were foreigners. There were no foreigners among the 20 people killed in the attack blamed on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are leading a decades-old campaign for a separate state that has claimed more than 55,000 lives.
Senanayake said two de luxe hotels damaged in the blast the Galadari and the Colombo Hilton needed refurbishing but had put off plans due to financial considerations. The bomb settled the problem immediately. The government came up with a $25 million rescue package for buildings devastated by the bomb. They are now upgrading the hotels and we will end up having a better product, Senanayake said.
When you say the bomb has been good for tourism you may be saying it in jest. But I am serious when I say it. Hotel owners in Colombo agree. There were too many five-star hotel rooms before the bombing and cut-throat competition had driven prices to ridiculously low levels, some times below $40 a night. Today rates are high with hotels unaffected by the attacks lifting prices beyond $80 a day.
With 450 rooms out of the market suddenly, the over-capacity problem has been taken care of, a hotel manager here said. Senanayake said he expected the number of foreigners visiting this Indian Ocean island to top half a million this year, up from 366,200 last year and a disappointing 302,300 in 1996. We had a 14 percent increase in January this year compared to the same period last year, Senanayake said.
Financial analysts say that foreign investor confidence was a key casualty of the attacks but tourism showed greater resilience. Senanayake said hotels in the central hill resort of Kandy, 72 miles (112 kilometers) east of here, were full despite the January 25 bombing there of the 16th-century temple of the tooth, a main tourist stop in the country. No foreigners were affected by that attack which killed 16 people and wounded 25.
But the bombing forced the cancellation of a visit there by Britain's Prince Charles. However, he went ahead with his four-day visit as the main guest of the country's 50th independence anniversary on February 4. What would have been worse than the bomb attack would have been a cancellation of the royal visit, Tourist Board chairman H.M.S. Samaranayake said. He said the visit had helped to generate interest in Sri Lanka's key tourist markets in Europe. Sri Lanka's Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera, who was the minister-in-attendance for Prince Charles, said the heir to the British throne had received 300 to 400 letters from pro-Tamil Tiger groups asking him not to go ahead with the visit to this former British colony.
Tourism officials said their immediate concern was the currency crisis in Southeast Asia which made those countries cheaper destinations for Europeans. We hope their prices will stabilize soon and they will not be that cheap for too long, Samaranayake said. Foreign tour operators bring tourists to Sri Lanka's golden sandy beaches, lush green mountain slopes and 2,000-year-old Buddhist sites despite the threat of bombs.
The bomb attacks are only being used as a lever to drive down prices, a manager at the southern tourist resort of Wadduwa said recently. If it was not safe, the foreign tour operators would not bring their clients here. But the problem faced by the industry last year was summed up by opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe: We have two-star tourists staying in four-star hotels.
(AFP)
The hospitality trade had improved since the October truck bombing of the World Trade Center in which 35 of the 105 wounded were foreigners. There were no foreigners among the 20 people killed in the attack blamed on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are leading a decades-old campaign for a separate state that has claimed more than 55,000 lives.
Senanayake said two de luxe hotels damaged in the blast the Galadari and the Colombo Hilton needed refurbishing but had put off plans due to financial considerations. The bomb settled the problem immediately. The government came up with a $25 million rescue package for buildings devastated by the bomb. They are now upgrading the hotels and we will end up having a better product, Senanayake said.
When you say the bomb has been good for tourism you may be saying it in jest. But I am serious when I say it. Hotel owners in Colombo agree. There were too many five-star hotel rooms before the bombing and cut-throat competition had driven prices to ridiculously low levels, some times below $40 a night. Today rates are high with hotels unaffected by the attacks lifting prices beyond $80 a day.
With 450 rooms out of the market suddenly, the over-capacity problem has been taken care of, a hotel manager here said. Senanayake said he expected the number of foreigners visiting this Indian Ocean island to top half a million this year, up from 366,200 last year and a disappointing 302,300 in 1996. We had a 14 percent increase in January this year compared to the same period last year, Senanayake said.
Financial analysts say that foreign investor confidence was a key casualty of the attacks but tourism showed greater resilience. Senanayake said hotels in the central hill resort of Kandy, 72 miles (112 kilometers) east of here, were full despite the January 25 bombing there of the 16th-century temple of the tooth, a main tourist stop in the country. No foreigners were affected by that attack which killed 16 people and wounded 25.
But the bombing forced the cancellation of a visit there by Britain's Prince Charles. However, he went ahead with his four-day visit as the main guest of the country's 50th independence anniversary on February 4. What would have been worse than the bomb attack would have been a cancellation of the royal visit, Tourist Board chairman H.M.S. Samaranayake said. He said the visit had helped to generate interest in Sri Lanka's key tourist markets in Europe. Sri Lanka's Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera, who was the minister-in-attendance for Prince Charles, said the heir to the British throne had received 300 to 400 letters from pro-Tamil Tiger groups asking him not to go ahead with the visit to this former British colony.
Tourism officials said their immediate concern was the currency crisis in Southeast Asia which made those countries cheaper destinations for Europeans. We hope their prices will stabilize soon and they will not be that cheap for too long, Samaranayake said. Foreign tour operators bring tourists to Sri Lanka's golden sandy beaches, lush green mountain slopes and 2,000-year-old Buddhist sites despite the threat of bombs.
The bomb attacks are only being used as a lever to drive down prices, a manager at the southern tourist resort of Wadduwa said recently. If it was not safe, the foreign tour operators would not bring their clients here. But the problem faced by the industry last year was summed up by opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe: We have two-star tourists staying in four-star hotels.
(AFP)