Indian tourists are reconsidering their plans to visit Sri Lanka due to economic crisis

Tuesday, April 5, 2022

For Indians, Sri Lanka is one of the top picks for destina¬tion weddings. But last month, when a family from Delhi chartered a Vistara Airbus A320 to Colombo, it packed much more than the standard stuff of clothes, gifts and jewellery.

The family transported meals from Delhi for all the guests for covering their entire stay in Col¬ombo due to food and fuel shortages in the island nation.

Tourist activitiesin Sri Lanka have continued in spite of the economic crisis, but with the emergency declaration and a 36-hour night curfew from Saturday, Indian tourists are reconsidering their plans.

Five-star hotels in Colombo are already witnessing cancelations and deferrals from group travelers. Flight loads have gone down and travel companies are seeing slow demand.

“We are witnessing lower bookings to Colombo due to the ongoing crisis. We are continuously monitoring the impact and may take appropriate action to adjust the capacity based on the demand and situation in Sri Lanka,” said IndiGo. Currently, Air India has reduced its weekly flights to Colombo from 16 to 13. The revised schedule will come into effect from April 8.

“We are closely monitoring the ongoing situation together with our local partners and keeping our customers updated. Currently, while we have obs¬er¬ved a slowdown, we are yet to receive booking cancellations for Sri Lanka,” said Daniel D’Souza, president and country head (holidays), SOTC Travel.

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