From a distance, it looked like a large scarecrow had inexplicably washed up on Bentota Beach in southern Sri Lanka. Up close, I realized that it was an eco-friendly Christmas tree, decorated with multicolored plastic discs that usually resemble fishing nets. Uprooted branches in the sand were near a mid-priced hotel called the Wonderbar. Several hotels along this spectacular 4 km stretch of golden sand, mostly looked empty. That morning, I counted half a dozen tourists as I strolled along the beach, at one end of which is the huge Taj Hotel, usually packed with Indian and Western tourists in peak season.
Scarecrow-style Christmas trees can also be viewed as protest art. Old Western government advisories warning about traveling there from the UK, Ireland and other European countries describe the island country as it was last summer, with endless queues for fuel and medicine and daily street protests instead of normal Was seen Today’s reality is These admonitions, along with images of a relatively peaceful rebellion, led to the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, playing Scrooge and ruining Sri Lanka’s Christmas season. The country needs tourism revenue more than ever to get out of the debt trap.
A friend and her son, who are at the end of a fortnight-long trip in which they have covered 600 km in a rented car, say they have not seen a queue at a petrol pump. Power cuts are limited to an hour or two a day. Compared to Bengaluru, where potholes shaped potholes, and Mumbai, where mushroom clouds of construction and thermal pollution overwhelmed views from Marine Drive, Colombo seemed an urban paradise. but, Almost 2023, the damage from stories shared on social media and poorly worded Western travel advice persists long after last summer’s political crisis was incompletely resolved and loans received from India and others.
The story has moved on, but if you travel to Sri Lanka, be prepared to receive text messages asking if there is enough food. The move to organic farming on the advice of the previous president and the subsequent increase in fertilizer prices have certainly pushed yields down and raised food prices. Many of Sri Lanka’s less affluent are reportedly giving up one meal a day to survive, but tourists staying away will only ensure that many more people are unemployed in one of the world’s most ancient holiday destinations.
as former travel editor of financial Times And later as a tourist, I’ve ignored most travel advisories. I traveled to Bali in 2005 when terrorists attacked three restaurants there and in 2019 after suicide bombers killed 114 people at St. Sebastian’s Church on Easter Sunday and a total of more than 260 people, including other bombings Visited Sri Lanka repeatedly. That summer, I marveled at the Navy cadets’ efficiency in restoring the church: The statues of Christ, with visible bloodstains from the attack, looked like a grim version of the crucifixion. Within weeks, the church was back to normal.
Huge loans taken by the Rajapaksa brothers to China at high interest rates for questionable infrastructure projects laid the foundation for Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange crisis. But, the Easter bombings and a tourism slump that followed harsh travel advisories against travel for months following the pandemic made a bad situation worse. The Tourism Authority of Sri Lanka uses 2018 as a baseline to track recovery. Arrivals in November 2022 were less than 60,000, down significantly from 195,582 in November 2018, showing how troubled the country is. Meanwhile, Thailand saw tourist arrivals in 2022 far exceed projections and an improvement in its current account deficit.
At the Heritage Ahungalla, a hotel in Sri Lanka that arguably pioneered the infinity pool four decades ago, general manager Sisira Senaratne reports that only Sri Lankan tourists stayed in November. December was better, with a mix of Russians and others, but the absence of British and German tourists meant that occupancy in December was just 59% compared to 95%-97% in a normal year. Most hotels are below 60%. Kaltura’s finest hotel had only 7 rooms out of 141.
I’ve been a frequent flier to Colombo for over two decades and my brief vacation this month felt like a postcard from another time. Its people were as charming as ever. “Welcome to beautiful Sri Lanka where the politicians are crazy,” a Rastafarian-style singer greeted guests one evening at Ahangalla. In Colombo, I met Dominic Sansoni, a renowned photographer. We were soon missing out on a great former Delhi Bureau Manager time magazine with which both of us have worked. At the home of architect Channa Daswatte, whose most recent project is a museum in Porbandar, I met Harin Amritanathan, a distinguished conductor who had just returned from India where he conducted the Paranjoti Academy Chorus. I almost spilled my drink in surprise. The choir was founded by my grandfather Victor in the 1950s. It was a reminder that the many threads that bind our countries together are only one of countless reasons to visit Sri Lanka.
Rahul is Jacob Peppermint columnist and a former financial Times foreign correspondent.
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