Sri Lanka emergency: Indian tourists in no rush to cancel bookings

NEW DELHI: The imposition of emergency in Sri Lanka has forced Indian tourists who are yet to make their bookings to explore other options.

However, the tourism industry does not expect major cancellations from those who have already booked their tickets.

Indian carriers like IndiGo that fly to the island nation have waived change and cancellation fee for passengers booked to fly in or out of Colombo between March 6 and 8.

India is the top source of foreign tourists for Sri Lanka. The country’s tourism board says it had 3.8 lakh arrivals from India in 2017 and is aiming to take this number to 4.4 lakh this year.

Daniel D’souza, head of sales of SOTC Travel, said, “Owing to the present situation, alternate destinations such as Thailand, Mauritius, Bhutan and Singapore will be explored by travellers.”

Chinthaka Weerasinghe, country manager India for Sri Lankan, said there has been no impact on bookings. The airline has 135 flights a week to 14 Indian destinations.

Sharat Dhall, COO of travel portal Yatra, said: “In wake of the prevailing situation in Sri Lanka, we are in touch with all those of our customers who are already at the destination. We are also speaking to our other customers who have future travel bookings to Sri Lanka with us, and explaining the current situation to them.

As of now, we have not seen any impact on the major tourist destinations there, and the feedback we are getting is that it is unlikely that there will be a significant impact going forward. However, it is early days and we are tracking the situation closely, and if anyone chooses to cancel or postpone their travel, we will be there to help them in making alternate plans.”

Rajeev Kale, president (leisure travel) at Thomas Cook (India) Ltd, said: “Sri Lanka is one of India’s favourite short haul destinations.… we have both group and individual customers on tour currently but have not received any cancellations or requests for rescheduling as of now. Together with our ground suppliers/partners, we have contacted every customer on tour and are in close coordination to ensure their safety security. We will continue with our on-going checks to closely monitor the situation on-ground.”