IN FOCUS
President Maithripala Sirisena has already pledged to
restore the tourism industry and promised to appoint a Cabinet
Sub Committee to look in to promote tourism, including the
provision of fi nancial assistance under concessionary terms.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has reassured fast-
tracked fi nancial support for tourism revival which will be an
urgent requirement due to heavy cancellations of future room
bookings. The other issue is to get over the psychological
trauma due to the disaster- not only domestically but
internationally and in tourists and businessmen.
Tourism priorities
In the disaster background, we have to look at the priorities
for tourism. I am told by the SriLankan Airlines management
in Delhi how tourists have cancelled their tickets to Sri Lanka.
One crucial event was spotted where some passengers on
board a SriLankan Airlines plane wanted to disembark when
the plane was moving on the tarmac to fl y off to Sri Lanka,
having heard of the dastardly event. The travellers were
disembarked. Customer is king! For SriLankan Airlines, high
technology responses of iPhones have borne negative results,
but to the travellers it was a positive consequence!
What does this incident show? What is the psychological
impact of the disaster? It is that with the terror blast the
‘positive location interest’ psychology has blasted. If there
were any investors fl ying to Sri Lanka for business, this
would have shattered their business world in Sri Lanka. I
am personally aware of one such case. It shook the image of
the country, its business, politics, security, etc. Therefore, it
is essential to restore the confi dence of customers, because
all those mentioned above are ‘tourists’ in some way or the
other. We have to create the ‘visit intent’ in them.
I have read an academic’s article explaining the diversity
in a tourism disaster. Accordingly, the diversity is due to
(a) multiple participants work towards a single goal, i.e.
the satisfaction of tourists, (b) the product or service is not
transportable to the consumer and rather the traveller visits
the destination where the product or service is experienced.
It means that we have to address the perceived anxieties
infl uencing visit intentions. What we have to address is how
to re-establish trust on the tourist destination, its security,
safety, service delivery capacity, etc. We may have to even
engage psychologists to solve this problem.
Taking the destination to customers is undertaken through
public communication, brochures, videos, powerpoint
presentations, television shows, tourism road shows, etc. Of
course, we were the world’s best tourist destination on 20
April. The challenge is to reach that day again.
I will tell you my latest experience in this regard. I
discussed with several tourist association executives, such as
National Committee on Tourism and Hospitality under the
Confederation of Indian Industry, Outbound Tour Operators
Association, Travel Agents Association of India and Indian
Association of Tour Operators, to hold a seminar in Delhi to
create awareness and give publicity to the tourism clientele
groups. The event planned before 21 April episode had to be
postponed since some of them thought that the timing is wrong.
In my own mind, I think diff erently because I am a believer
that this is the “gestation period” for advertising, publicising
the destination, preparing the visitors psychologically to
rebound and hence requested them to proceed. I think that
it is possible to rebound and rewind the industry. We must
patiently strive to reach this objective. I am reminded of
a saying by a former President of NEC Japan, Konusuke
Matsushita: “Storms may pass, patience is a virtue!”
National security
Right now we have Emergency regulations declared and
night curfews are operative in areas where investigations
are going on. The curfew hours were reduced by day and it
will be totally out in the whole country, I hope very soon.
However, national security is a more important issue and
should be given priority. One positive side of the curfews
and Emergency regulations is the Military and Police fi nd
the hidden loads of explosives, arms, grenades, kathi knives,
etc. It means cleansing terror. This enhances the confi dence
level and attachment to the much-loved destinations in the
minds of the previous and potential visitors.
While the Emergency is on, tourist arrivals can be
organised on a selective destination basis on confi dence
levels. In such circumstance, there is a role for the Sri Lankan
travel and tourism business to be collaborative with foreign
friends of the same category.
While we have the online visa system, considered as
working without any hitch, the Government took a decision
to implement a free visa issue system from 1 May this year,
to fi t into the lean season. It was hailed as a correct step by
several Delhi Ambassadors. This has been stopped due to
the 21 April episode. If this could be re-introduced it will
certainly attract tourists more.
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 7 • Issue 4 • April-May 2019, Noida • 67