Sri Lanka welcomes 44,294 tourists in November 2021, mainly from India
Sri Lanka welcomed 44,294 tourists in November 2021, up from zero a year earlier due to the COVID – 19 pandemic. The largest source markets recorded for the month of November were India, the United Kingdom, and Russia, followed by Germany and Pakistan.
India was the largest source of tourist visits to Sri Lanka with 14,236 arrivals representing 32.1 percent of the total traffic received in November. The UK generated 3,770 visitors or 8.5 percent of the total, Russia 3,520 or 7.9 percent, Germany 2,667 or 6 percent, Pakistan 2,612 visitors or 5.9 percent, Maldives 1,464 or 3.3 percent and France 1,447 or 3.3 percent. There were only 201 visitors from China in the month.
Visitors from Asia Pacific became the largest source of tourists to Sri Lanka with 48.8 percent of total arrivals in November. Europe accounted for 41.9 percent of total arrivals, while those of the Americas accounted 5.6 percent of total arrivals.
As of November 30, 2021, 104,989 international tourists had visited Sri Lanka for this year; just 20.7% of the total 507,311 visitors in 2020 and who all came in the first quarter of last year, before Sri Lanka closed its airports in March that year. I.e. ‘year-on-year’ arrivals are down 79.3 percent.
India, the United Kingdom, Germany, Kazakhstan and Ukraine were Sri Lanka’s top five international tourist-generating markets from January to November this year.
32,702 of the 104,989 total arrivals ‘year-to-date’ came from India. Conversely, 31 percent of the YTD total arrivals were Indian travelers.
The growth in arrivals from countries in the Western, Central & Eastern Europe, suggests a slight revitalization of leisure tourism, potentially enabled by factors such as the gradual improvement of traveler confidence, the lifting of travel restrictions, the increased roll out of COVID-19 vaccine programs, and the Western European summer holiday period.
However, with the surge in COVID cases in the European region, and the emergence of the Omicron virus, there is heightened apprehension that the current growth momentum will decline in the coming months.
Hospitality Sri Lanka News
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