Most of the 400 customers on a contract trip to Sri Lanka have been contacted by their tour operators and almost all want to stay there, the French trade union of companies in the sector (Seto) said on Sunday, after eight attacks that killed at least 207 people and injured more than 450 on Sunday.
“We were able to have contact with almost all of our customers scattered throughout the island,” Seto president René-Marc Chikli told AFP after a crisis cell meeting with major tour operators planning the destination. “No tour operator has reported having any kind of loss with customers” who continue to be kept “informed of the local situation” and whose “programs have been redesigned,” he said.
“No early return requests”
“Almost all customers want to stay put,” added René-Marc Chikli, as tour operators have “so far recorded virtually no requests for early return.”
For future departures, customers with departures until April 25 may “leave as originally planned knowing that some program changes may occur” or they can “defer their trip to Sri Lanka free of charge” or “postpone at no cost to another destination,” according to a Seto briefing note.
The Seto plans to communicate the development of the local situation “no later than Thursday, April 25, 2019” for departures from April 26.
