Tourist arrivals below expectation: SLTDA

• SLTDA chairman says visa issue has created many issues and could be a reason for below expected level of arrivals.
• Points out island nation has lost around US $ 75-80mn in August as a result of negative impact created due to visa issue.
  

The hit on Sri Lanka’s tourism sector is expected to only further aggravate, with a proper solution yet to be implemented.

The tourist arrivals for the month of September are below expectations and according to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), the situation in the coming period does not look good.

“Unfortunately, the visa issue has created many issues and could be a reason for the below expected level of arrivals. The numbers will dwindle further in the coming days,” SLTDA Chairman Priantha Fernando told Mirror Business.

Just as the local tourism sector was on track towards revival and growth, after being repeatedly impacted since 2019, with the challenges beyond its control, in May, it faced a new issue with the government awarding the visa processing to a consortium led by VFS Global.

The system, which was rolled out without consultation with the industry stakeholders, made the visa obtaining process for international travellers more expensive and difficult, as it was not user-friendly.

In August, a Supreme Court order was given to suspend the contract awarded to the consortium, after eight fundamental right cases were filed against the move.

Despite the Supreme Court having given the order to revert to the previous system that was run by SLT-Mobitel, no such move has been made as yet.

Last week, the Supreme Court issued an order directing the Controller General of Immigration and Emigration to appear before the court in person for his failure to implement the given order.

Due to the delays, Sri Lanka has lost around US $ 75-80 million in August as a result of the negative impact created due to the visa issue, Fernando said.

The provisional data released by the SLTDA showed that for the first 11 days of September, the tourist arrivals recorded just under 45,000, totalling 44,977. The daily arrival average dropped to 4,088.

India ranks as the largest tourist traffic generator for Sri Lanka tourism for September so far, accounting for 19.6 percent of the total tourist arrivals.

The United Kingdom ranks in the second place, contributing 8.3 percent to the total tourist arrivals and Germany stands as the third largest source market, accounting for 7.4 percent of the total arrivals.