Government intervention needed to stay afloat: THASL President

May, 22, 2020

The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) seeks support from the government to meet the working capital needs of tourism businesses, to fund the employees’ salaries and maintain the hotel properties for at least the next six months, amid revenue levels reaching zero.

“The tourism industry is going through a very challenging time. There is no revenue and there are no guests. Maintaining our hotel plants and our employees is impossible because there is no income. Around 90% of hotels have not paid salaries to their staff for the month of April, The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) President Sanath Ukwatte said whilst speaking exclusively to ada derena.

“We need to pay our employees to maintain their livelihood but in a situation of zero income we had to turn to the government to support us. We had requested the government to make some financial provision available by way of grants or soft loans directly given by the government to the industry at least for a period of six months. By that way we are determined to find a way out of this and to encourage people to travel and patronize hotels safely as soon as the hotels are re-opened. We also appeal to the public and the local businesses to support and help our local hotels as much as possible and keep our 500,000 livelihood afloat,” he said.