We are well aware of, and closely monitoring, the political situation in Sri Lanka since removal of the Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe by Presidential Sirisena on Friday and his subsequent appointment of former President Mahinda Rajapakse to the office of Prime Minister.
Experience Travel Group maintains an office and full-time direct employees in Colombo and we keep close tabs on the situation on the ground. Whilst we have taken some precautions to ensure clients are kept away from certain key areas in Colombo, we see no reason for concern for our clients in Sri Lanka, at the current time, nor any necessity to alter plans substantially at this stage.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has updated its travel advice for Sri Lanka, advising visitors to avoid demonstrations and gatherings.
“On October 26, the president of Sri Lanka sought to dismiss the prime minister, leading to a period of political instability,” said the FCO.
“Protests are expected in central Colombo on October 30. You should exercise vigilance and avoid all demonstrations or large political gatherings. Monitor this travel advice for further updates.”
We will be having twice daily updates with our local staff until there is more clarity on the situation. All ETG clients within Sri Lanka are able to speak to our local staff at any time day or night and are tracked to ensure their safety at all times anyway. Due to the current England cricket tour of Sri Lanka, we have large numbers of clients travelling out this week for the first test in Galle as well as many cricket fans already in the country.
Myself and two other staff will be travelling out to Sri Lanka on Thursday evening. We are hosting two events for our clients in Galle, the venue for the first test in southern Sri Lanka. We don’t anticipate any disruption or issue with that Test match next week. We are timing our visit to coincide with the first Test match in Galle, where Sri Lanka play England. One of our London team, Henry, will be staying for the duration of the series to ensure that we can touch base with the 120 clients we have travelling during this time.
Updated: 31st October 2018