Most of the travel industry stakeholders bound for the World Tourism Market (WTM) in London are in a quandary as no proper guidelines are issued from the Sri Lankan embassy in the UK or the Foreign Ministry of Sri Lanka concerning quarantine entry rules to the country.
Both these bodies say to contact each other or refer to the UK websites and take off shouldering responsibility. According to Sri Lanka Tourism, 10 companies were participating in the WTM when Sri Lanka was listed in the Red List by Britain. “However when Sri Lanka was changed to the Amber list 20 other companies also registered to participate in the WTM and a pavilion too was created accommodating 30 stalls.”
Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunge and SLTB Chairperson (who is now in the UK) will attend the WTM. According to leisure sector stakeholders, a minimum 8-day quarantine is needed irrespective of the vaccine taken and this makes the three day UK WTM an 11-day tour. “Hence many Sri Lanka companies are now pulling out from attending the WTM and they are looking to operate their stalls though UK staff.”
When contacted former Marketing Head Sri Lanka Tourism for the UK and Ireland Nalin Perera now living in London said that he too has received many inquiries to arrange for staff to operate the local stalls at WTM Sri Lanka Pavilion and he has successfully coordinated and made arrangements for this.
0 comments: