TIRUCHY: Hardly an hour away by flight from Tiruchy, Sri Lanka was once a favourite tourist destination for many a traveller from the central region of the State. However, the ongoing economic crisis in the island nation has led tourists to turn to Malaysia and Singapore as holiday getaways.
While most of them who board the daily Colombo-Tiruchy flight are transit passengers, travel operators say tourists have not been planning holiday trips to Sri Lanka for safety reasons.
"As there is a significant Tamil population in Malaysia, it is currently one of the favourite holiday destinations for travellers from Tamil Nadu. This trend is likely to continue as many countries like the UK, Canada, and the US have already cautioned against visiting Sri Lanka. Thus, we are not even considering Sri Lanka for holiday trips," said G Kalidasan, a travel agent in Tiruchy.
Though the potential of Sri Lanka as a tourist destination has dropped, travel agents believe it would remain a transit hub for international passengers. Even then, some raised doubts to how long it would remain so. Even those planning connecting trips have raised concerns on the safety at the airport, they said.
"Most of the them who board the flight to Sri Lanka from Tiruchy are transit passengers. They would be travelling to Dubai, Muscat, Saudi Arabia, London or other destinations via Sri Lanka. In fact, Sri Lanka is a major transit hub for several international passengers. But we don't know how long they will continue to be a transit hub as passengers, concerned over the ongoing crisis, have been changing their travel plans. We ourselves cannot give assurance on safety and convenience when the passengers raise queries. We, too, hence avoid flight bookings to Sri Lanka," said N Ramesh, another travel agent.
Meanwhile, some of the frequent travellers said that they may consider visiting the island nation once the crisis is reined in. "I thought about visiting Sr Lanka when the government announced the lifting of pandemic regulations on all international operations in March.
However, the Sri Lankan crisis worsened by April, and I dropped the plan. I am to visit Malaysia by the second week of June. I may consider visiting Sri Lanka for holidays if the situation changes for the better," said R Sivakumar, resident and a frequent flyer in Tiruchy.