TUI has cancelled further holidays to Sri Lanka, with all holidays up to and including June 12 being affected. The announcement comes as the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office continue to warn against all but essential travel to the country.
The warning comes as protests have been taking place across Sri Lanka due to an economic crisis. Locals are facing shortages of medicines, fuel and food as well as daily power cuts due to electricity rationing.
Several protests have taken place since March 31 and they are likely to continue. The FCDO announced that several incidents took place on May 9 which involved violence and have resulted in injuries and loss of life.
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TUI released a statement: “Due to the ongoing political and economic instability in Sri Lanka, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) have advised against all but essential travel.
“As a result, we’ve unfortunately had to cancel all holidays to Sri Lanka departing up to and including June 12 2022.
“We will be proactively contacting all impacted customers in departure date order to discuss their options.
“Please note this advice does not apply to customers transiting through Sri Lanka’s international airport and customers currently in resort can continue to enjoy their holiday as planned.
“We will continue to monitor the situation and update customers should there be any further updates.
“We would like to thank our customers for their understanding at this time.”
When the Foreign Office advises against all but essential travel, travel firms such as TUI, will usually cancel any trips they are operating and offer customers options such as rebooking to a later date, or receiving a full refund. They may also offer you an alternative holiday for the same dates you were due to travel on, which you can also choose if you wish.
If you have booked your flights and hotel separately, you'll need to get in touch with your airline and accommodation directly. As flights to Sri Lanka aren't banned, it could be that your flight is still scheduled to go ahead - in which case receiving a refund isn't guaranteed.
In this case, you may need to compromise such as accepting vouchers, rebooking to a later date, or switching flights to a different destination (although you may need to pay a difference in fare if this applies). As for your accommodation, this will depend on the terms and conditions of your booking policy - again, you may need to compromise with a rebooking instead of a refund.
It's worth noting that if you choose to travel against Foreign Office advice, your travel insurance will be void - so if anything goes wrong such as lost luggage or illness, you could end up facing some hefty bills.
You can get more information about the situation in Sri Lanka and expanded travel advice here.
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