Sri Lanka welcomes 102,545 visitors in January 2023
The 102,545 tourist arrivals to the country during January 2023 was a 24.6 %, over January 2022’s 82,327 tourists.
Russia emerged as the largest tourist traffic generator accounting for 24.6 % (25,254 arrivals) of the total arrivals to the country. The 2nd largest source market for Sri Lanka was India, accounting for 13.4 % (13,759), whereas the UK was the 3rd largest contributing 8.3 % (8,483) to the total tourist traffic. Germany and France ranked as the 4th and 5th largest source markets with 8.0% (8,217), and 4.4 % (4,480), respectively. These 5 countries provided 59% of the month’s total arrivals.
Usually, ‘arrivals’ performance during the first quarter (Jan – Mar) of the year, which also marks the latter half of the ‘high season’ is a strong indicator of things to follow. In 2018, 707,924 tourists visited Sri Lanka as of 31st March. That was a 17.1% growth over the same period for 2017.
To be on track for 1.5 Million visitors in 2023 we must have at least 475,000 visitors in the bank by the end of March.
According to new data from UNWTO, more than 900 million tourists travelled internationally in 2022 – double the number recorded in 2021 though still 63% of pre-pandemic levels.
Every global region recorded notable increases in international tourist numbers. The Middle East enjoyed the strongest relative increase as arrivals climbed to 83% of pre-pandemic numbers. Europe reached nearly 80% of pre-pandemic levels as it welcomed 585 million arrivals in 2022. Africa and the Americas both recovered about 65% of their pre-pandemic visitors.
In comparison, Asia and the Pacific fared poorly, reaching only 23% of pre-pandemic levels last year due to stronger pandemic-related restrictions which have started to be removed only in recent months.
The good news though is that the resumption of travel from China is likely to benefit Asian destinations in particular – in the short term. China will roll out a pilot program to revive the country's outbound group travel services, said a circular released Friday by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Starting Feb. 6, travel agencies and online tourism service providers in China will be permitted to provide group tours of 20 countries, including Sri Lanka.
Countries listed for travel by the Chinese government are Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Russia, Switzerland, Hungary, New Zealand, Fiji, Cuba and Argentina.
Hospitality Sri Lanka
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