‘It's a win – but we're still short-changing the people of Sri Lanka’
After leading a successful campaign to have the Foreign Office soften its travel advice for Sri Lanka, Experience Travel Group chief executive Sam Clark tells TTG why he believes so strongly in the country’s cause – and why there is still more to push for.
"Why would I risk it?” asked Tony, a multiple repeat customer of Experience Travel Group. Like many of our clients, Tony is an adventurous and experienced traveller who enjoys a bit of luxury.
Where better then than Sri Lanka? It ticked every box. "It sounds like it’s still a bit of a basket case," was Tony’s verdict. It was hard to disagree.
After the Easter 2019 terror attacks, the Covid pandemic and the country’s subsequent economic downturn, the Foreign Office’s advice for Sri Lanka was a litany of bad things that might happen, laced with dire warnings about a lack of medical suppliers, fuel and foodstuffs, and a seemingly imminent collapse of law and order.
That’s why we were so pleased that on Friday (5 April), the FCDO finally responded to our campaign by removing many of the more incendiary passages from its travel advice and changing its tone.
It no longer warns of "limited availability of some products, including food and medicines"; the framing of curfews is now firmly in the past; it no longer implies the country is a “basket case”.
We still believe it could make further tweaks, such as toning down some of the concerning language around protests, which it says "could happen anywhere across the island at short notice”.
While it’s always possible protests could break out anywhere in the world, it doesn’t seem any more likely in Sri Lanka than anywhere else currently; on the contrary, during my recent visits, it has felt very calm.
That’s what our hundreds of customers who have travelled to Sri Lanka over the past year have told us too. If the reality on the ground doesn’t match the advice, it undermines people’s faith in the system, with the FCDO’s advice essentially serving as a final arbiter on whether people travel. That isn’t good for UK travellers.
That said, now is a good time to reflect on the campaign we’ve run and the support we’ve received that has brought this change about, which started with the open letter we sent the UK government back in January and the research we carried out with Aito.
Our friends and colleagues in Sri Lanka such as the Sri Lankan Association of Inbound Tour Operators and the country’s tourism authorities, including the energetic tourism minister Harin Fernando, provided critical support and input. We were proud, too, to have cricketing legends Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene sign our open letter.
Those in the trade in Sri Lanka could tell that while tourism came back in a big way for Sri Lanka this past season, UK arrivals – particularly people like Tony, that critical older demographic – were lagging substantially behind.
‘Unique destination’
In the UK, a spirit of co-operation took over during the pandemic, and that has continued as we and the rest of the world has emerged from Covid.
Our fellow specialist operators backed our campaign enthusiastically and critically; we had the support too of Aito, who contributed to our letter and our polling and quietly asked some probing questions of FCDO officials.
Pivotal support came from Lord Naseby, who raised our campaign in the House of Lords, while TTG and the rest of the travel press were brilliant in amplifying our message.
TTG's Gary Noakes wrote a very balanced, forensic piece that was picked up worldwide, and he waited patiently for a response from the FCDO. Working together, we can make things happen.
Nobody is saying Sri Lanka is perfect. It has challenges like any other country, more than most in fact. And rebuilding will take a long time. But the custom of considerate, engaged and, crucially, higher-spending British tourists can play a critical role in supporting that transition.
Sri Lanka is a unique destination; there is probably no other country in the world more suited to an immersive and luxurious holiday. I’m so pleased we can get back to spreading the word.
Perhaps Tony will be able to enjoy it too, after all.
Sam Clark is chief executive of Sri Lanka specialist Experience Travel Group.
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