Sri Lanka has imposed a 10-day lockdown allowing only essential services to operate as authorities battle to contain a wave of Delta variant cases.
During the lockdown, which kicked in at 22.00 on Friday (August 20) and will last until 04.00 on August 30, all public and private sector establishments are closed, with only essential and emergency services allowed to remain open.
Sri Lankan authorities has since last Monday imposed an indefinite nationwide night curfew from 22.00 to 04.00 daily, along with a ban on social gatherings, public events and seminars.
The latest lockdown follows appeals from the medical profession, trade unions, civil society groups and Buddhist religious dignitaries for tighter mobility restrictions in the face of worsening Covid-19 case numbers.
On Friday (August 20), Sri Lanka reported a record daily rise in Covid-19 cases for the third consecutive day, reporting 3,839 new cases, up from 3,435 a day on August 15; with 195 deaths. The new infections bring the total tally to 381,812 and 6,985 deaths.
Opposition parties and trade unions in the country have accused the government of under-reporting the number of Covid-19 cases.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Tourism (SLT) officials said only fully vaccinated Indians would be allowed entry into Sri Lanka, in effect since August 19. India is Sri Lanka’s biggest source market but the rising number of Covid-19 cases in India has led to this cautious approach.
In a statement, SLT said that Sri Lanka will continue welcoming international travellers during the lockdown with majority of the tourist attractions to remain open. Since reopening to tourism in January this year up to July 31, the country has received a mere 19,337 arrivals, a sharp drop from last year.
In another circular, SLT said nationals of South American countries and South African countries – South Africa, Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe – are not allowed entry into Sri Lanka.
“This Olympics was obviously different because of the closed-door nature of the competition, but there was still a substantial performance lift as hotels housed media, staff and a number of high-profile teams that did not stay in the athlete village,” said Shiori Sakurai, STR’s business development manager.
Tourism stakeholders in Phuket are anticipating the return of Russian tourists to the southern Thai island, following the approval of the Sputnik vaccine by the Thailand’s Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration.
Phuket has for years been a very popular destination with Russian travellers, peaking in 2019 with more than 700,000 arrivals over a short five-month period, all arriving on direct flights from Russia. A total of 1.4 million Russians visited Phuket in 2019.
The traditional snowbird period from November to March is when temperatures drop severely in Russia and also in many parts of northern Europe, signalling travelers to take flight for the tropical chimes and clear blue skies of Phuket.
“This is great news for Phuket. It’s time to go beyond the Sandbox and build a foundation for a broader tourism initiative,” said Phuket Tourist Association president, Bhummikitti Ruktaengam. “The industry can now get back to basics and focus on the northern European winter season. This is a big opportunity for Phuket. These are our legacy markets.”
Laguna Phuket, an integrated destination in the popular Bangtao Beach area, consisting of seven hotels and a Bangkok Hospital-operated PCR test centre, has already been a beneficiary of the Phuket Sandbox, but this is a major step up, according to its managing director, Ravi Chandran.
“The acceptance of the Sputnik vaccine is a game-changer for Phuket,” he said. “The outbound Russian market is the biggest one in the world outside of China and the timing is perfect with the high season starting in November this year. Phuket Sandbox has proven to be a success and this will now take these achievements to greater heights still for all hotels, tourism stakeholders and the local community on the island.”
Since July 1, more than 300,000 hotel rooms have been booked up until the end of August by international visitors arriving via the Phuket Sandbox initiative. The number of foreign tourists is expected to rapidly rise as the high season approaches, with scheduled and chartered Russian carriers set to arrive in Phuket from October 2021.
Talking about ‘ready-made’ market potential, C9 Hotelworks managing director, Bill Barnett, said that “coming into the 2021 winter wonderland, and changing marketplace, the Russians, who typically have a 11-12-night average length of stay, are a perfect fit for the Sandbox.”