Sri Lanka attracts 194,495 tourists in 2021
Despite the challenges posed by the global COVID pandemic, Sri Lanka just fell short of welcoming 200,000 tourists during 2021.
December’s total 89,506 arrivals – a record number for any month since March 2020, boosted the year’s total arrivals to 194,495.
India topped the list of countries bringing in the most tourists last year, with 56,268 (63% of the year’s total arrivals); followed by Russia 16,894, UK 16,646, Germany 12,442, and Ukraine 7,037.
The 2021 figure is however lower in comparison to 507,704 tourists attracted in 2020 largely on account of robust inflows at the tail-end of the 2019/20 winter season (Jan – Mar’20). From late March 2020, Sri Lankan borders were closed for 10 months, to partially re-open in January 2021, whereupon there were 1,682 tourists, arrivals that month.
With the Sri Lankan government pinning a lot of hopes on tourism as a low-hanging fruit to boost foreign exchange earnings, the island’s Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga hopes this trend will continue and has expectations of between 100 – 125,000 tourist arrivals in January this year.
In 2018, Sri Lanka attracted a record 2.3 million tourists followed by 1.9 million in 2019, which marked the year of the Easter Sunday tragedy.
Pre-pandemic, a total of 37 international airlines operated to Sri Lanka and the Tourism Ministry is actively engaged in negotiations with all the airlines that operated into the country pre-COVID to encourage them to resume operations, whilst also engaging in attracting new markets via charter flights during the winter season.
Apart from Emirates and Singapore Airlines, the other carriers operating to Sri Lanka include Air France, Qatar Airways, Saudia, Oman Airlines, Etihad Airways, Turkish Airlines, Air India, Gulf Air, Aeroflot, Fly Dubai, Jazeera Airways, IndiGo, China Eastern Airlines, Edelweiss Air, Azur Airlines, Air Astana, Lot Polish Airlines, Neos Airlines and Vistara Airlines.
Hospitality Sri Lanka News
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