Arrivals to return to pre-COVID levels next year – Kuoni UK

ExCel: Sri Lanka tourism will return to its original pre-COVID figures and status next year opined Christie boon representing one of the world’s largest tour operators, Kuoni UK.

In an interview with Daily News Business, she said that the Sri Lankan country situation has almost reached pre-COVID status.

“This is a very encouraging turnaround in quick time,” she said. In the last 2 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a global drop in tourism. However, Sri Lanka has other political problems.

Due to this, she said that in the last 2 years the world and especially UK tourists had second thoughts about going to Sri Lanka due to long queues for essentials and violent protests. The service standards of some of the hotels also dropped and there were transport issues. Today UK tourists have a different and positive sentiment towards Sri Lanka.

“The customer feedback we get from UK tourists for Sri Lanka is very positive.”

She said that in the UK the cost of living is high and tourists are looking at more economical destinations to fly to.

“Due to the high buying power of the Pound sterling, Sri Lanka has become an automatic destination for this market.”

She also said that having direct SriLankan Airlines flights is another reason to promote Sri Lanka.

Asked to comment on the high airfares she said that this is a global phenomenon that will be there for some time. People are getting used to it.”

Chairman Sri Lankan Tourism Promotion Bureau, Chalaka Gajabahu said that the ongoing WTM gives a really good opportunity to tell the world about all the good things happening in Sri Lanka.

“We believe that we will be able to touch the 1 million arrival mark in 2022.”