Sri Lanka crisis: Country's tourism hit hard, hotel association protest to save industry

With Sri Lanka facing an economic crisis amidst public anger and protests against massive food and fuel scarcity, the country's tourism sector, one of the major contributors to its economy, was slowly reviving after the COVID pandemic has now been hit hard.

Sri Lanka is battling a severe economic crisis with food and fuel scarcity affecting a large number of the people in the island nation. The economy of the island country that has been in a free-fall since the onset of the COVID pandemic is now in the throes of a spiralling crisis, with shortages of medicines and food and long power cuts.

Several hotels located in Colombo said they have suffered huge losses due to ongoing mass protests in the city as tourists are

Kevin, a General Manager of Colombo Court Hotel in the city told ANI: "One main big reason is the current ongoing power cuts, hike in fuel prices and lack of essential items has been a big hit for us hoteliers as we cannot survive without electricity. We have set up own own power banks because it is the main thing that tourists look for."

The manager who has been in the hotel business for several years says he has not seen such the tourism sector in such a dismal condition prior to COVID-19.

"After COVID our country was hit by the economic crisis. During the pandemic times we found ways to operate being a hotel and now that we have come out from the pandemic, this crisis has hit the country. We did business in March and expected that we are heading now into normalcy. While we used to host 1000 tourists earlier the numbers have gone down drastically."

India has been one of the major tourism source markets for Colombo and different parts of the Sri Lanka but with the ongoing unrest, the tourist businesses have been impacted heavily, the hotelier said.

"India is a big market for us, we have many clients from India but this time we are not getting bookings due to the ongoing protests," he told ANI.

Hoteliers say that for the first time since COVID, rooms have remained empty for weeks. Chefs and employees often go for days without any work and there is silence in the kitchen areas.

"Earlier we used to take bulk and fancy orders from tourists to make special dishes, but unfortunately the ongoing protests have hit our industry badly," a hotel chef told ANI.

On April 5, members of the hotel association and its staff protested in large numbers outside the tourism board in Colombo.

"We're here to represent the many stakeholders in the tourism industry who've been affected. We need to save tourism industry in the country," said Gerard Medina, Chairman, Chefs Guild of Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has revoked the State of Emergency imposed in the country to ensure "public security and maintenance of public order."

This decision was announced after an emergency general committee meeting of the country's Government Medical Officers' Association (GMOA) to discuss the imposition of the emergency law and the severe drug shortage, the Daily Mirror reported.

Sri Lanka is presently facing a foreign exchange shortage which has led to a food, fuel, power and gas shortage and has sought the assistance of friendly countries for economic assistance. Sri Lanka's currency has been also devalued by almost SLR 90 against the US dollar since March 8.

( With inputs from ANI )

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