Only 37,000 arrivals in May '19: what lies ahead?
Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka in May 2019 slumped to 37,000 after the 21st April bomb attacks. This is down 71.5% over the 129,466 total arrivals in May 2018.
To assume that, had it not been for those acts of terrorism, a further 100,000 arrivals would have come during May this year, is not far from being accurate. Alas such was the immediate impact to the hospitality industry. The wider aftershocks of the attacks will no doubt affect everything from foreign investment to tourism.
India, whilst retaining its top position had a 63% decline in arrivals when compared to figures for May last year. With only 1,762 tourists, visitors from China dropped a staggering 90% on arrivals during May 2018. There were slightly more arrivals from the UK (3,297), Australia (2,484) and France (2015). Bucking the trend however, was Russia, with 1,568 visitors – up 31% over the 1,200 who came during May 2018.
Eight countries have so far ‘softened’ their travel advisories on Sri Lanka. They include India, China, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway and Belgium.
Prior to the attacks in April and despite a very sluggish performance during the first quarter of 2019, Sri Lanka Tourism was confident of attracting 3 Million tourists in 2019.
Post 21st April: government sources now announce that tourist arrivals to the country could decline by 30% to around 1.6 million this year, due to the impacts of the April attacks. In other words, had nothing happened in April, a total 2.3 Million was the unsaid official ‘arrivals’ expectation for 2019 - a tacit admission that achieving 3 Million target was never on the cards?
With Presidential Elections due to be held in December and the prevailing political uncertainly… even achieving 1.6 Million arrivals this year is not going to be that easy.
Our prediction for 2019: 1.45 Million.
Report by in2ition
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