Sri Lanka Tourism Minister predicts pre-COVID 'arrivals' numbers...by 2022
Toning down ambitions to attract 250,000 visitors per month effective November 2021 as announced last month by the Minister of Tourism, Sri Lanka Tourism now aims to attract 400,000 visitors to the island between October 2021 and April 2022.
He goes on to predict that arrivals to Sri Lanka will reach pre-COVID figures by 2022. (The country received 1.9 million tourists in 2019).
At a meeting held on 9th November, where officials met with French tour operators, travel agents and media personnel, Sri Lanka’s Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said “We are expecting around 200,000 tourists from November to December this year. The industry has earned US$ 130 million since re-opening borders on 21st January 2021”.
This expectation stems from plans to carry out a number of promotional campaigns in the top five tourist generating markets, namely; Russia, India, United Kingdom, Germany and France. All these countries are served with direct air-connectivity by several airlines including the country’s national carrier Sri Lankan Airlines.
Large numbers of visitors are also expected from Poland, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Poland has been identified as one of the most promising markets with potential to become a key source market for Sri Lanka, due to Polish Airlines resuming twice-weekly flights to Sri Lanka from 7th December 2021. There were Over 20,000 visitors from Poland in 2018 and 2019.
Currently, work is underway on two promotional campaigns; a Rs. 200 million television campaign and another Rs. 200 million tactical promotional campaign as per an official.
As per provisional data, 9,545 tourists arrived in Sri Lanka within the 1st week of November, pushing the cumulative tourist arrivals since 21st January until then, to total 70,633. The expectation is that another 190,455 tourists will arrive in the remaining 54 days in 2021. I.e. average 3500+ tourist arrivals per day.
Hospitality Sri Lanka News
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