Sri Lanka blasts: Travel firms monitoring safety of Indian tourists; desi airlines waive cancellation charges

NEW DELHI: The serial bomb blasts in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday have sent reverberations across India as the island nation is one of the most popular tourist destinations for a desi traveller. India is one of the top source tourist markets to Sri Lanka and the targeting of high-end hotels and churches is leading to second thoughts among travellers here for the coming peak tourist season.
Sri Lankan Airlines, which operates 118 weekly flights between its hub Colombo and 12 Indian cities, said in a statement: “138 people are reported killed and 402 people are injured, among which are foreign nationals… authorities are conducting investigations to ascertain their nationalities… airline has already informed passengers who are scheduled to depart Colombo Sunday to arrive at the airport four hours prior to departure, as the security at the Bandaranaike International Airport has been tightened…. The airline currently continues operations as per the schedule.”
Given this long weekend, a number of Indian tourists are feared to have been in Sri Lanka on Sunday. Karan Anand of travel major Cox & Kings said: “All our guests who are in Sri Lanka are safe and we are monitoring the situation. Most of our tourists are holidaying in different parts of Sri Lanka such as Kandy and Bentota. We are getting updates from our local office in Sri Lanka and will guide our customers accordingly.”
Thomas Cook India Group CMD Madhavan Menon said: “Our customers.. currently on tour are accounted for and safe, as also our people across our teams. We are in constant touch with our customers for reassurance and to ensure their safe return to their home stations.”
Travel portal Yatra COO Sharat Dhal said these blasts will have a negative impact in the short term but things should return to normal if things are peaceful going forward. “As of now, we have not seen any immediate cancellations but there has been a slow down in the new enquiries and bookings that were in process.” Karan Anand also said “there will be a short term impact as people will be cautious and shift to other destinations” like Kerala.
This could be a big blow to the Lankan economy. Sri Lanka had got over 4.5 lakh Indians visited Sri Lanka in 2018 and was expecting to double the figure in 2019. There are close to 30 daily direct flights from various Indian destinations to Sri Lanka. After last year’s Kerala floods, Sri Lanka had seen a rise in number of Indian visitors, say travel majors.
IndiGo, which has three daily flights between India (one Bangalore and two Chennai) and Colombo, is “providing full fee waiver on rescheduling/cancellation for all flights to/from Colombo for travel scheduled till April 24, 2019.” Air India has also done the same.
SOTC Travel’s president (leisure) Daniel D’souza said: “The safety of our customers remains SOTC's foremost priority. We are monitoring the situation and are in touch with our customers and partners to ensure their safety. In case of the future bookings the same would be taken in the best interest of our customers.”
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