Sri Lanka records 93,582 arrivals in February 2022
Tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka surpassed 90,000 in February, seeing a 14-percent increase from the previous month, as per official figures from the Tourism Ministry.
Last month also saw the highest number of visitors per month in the past twenty four months, since March 2020.
According to the ministry, 93,582 tourists arrived in February, leading to 175,909 tourists arriving in the country year todate. Russia continued to be the leading source market for Sri Lanka with 28,392 tourists arriving in the country to date, followed by India with 24,141, Britain 17,749, Ukraine 13,039 and Germany 12,779.
In addition, tourists also came from countries such as France, Poland, Australia, Kazakhstan and the Maldives in January and February.
Sri Lanka recently revised its tourist arrival forecast for 2022, down from 2.3 million to 1.1 million due to challenges posed by the Omicron variant.
The tourism sector contributed to 4.3 percent of Sri Lanka's gross domestic product and had 402,607 people employed in 2019. The country has lost an estimated 10 billion U.S. dollars in tourism revenue over the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was recently signed between Emirates Airlines and the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB), to promote Sri Lanka as an attractive tourist destination. Under the MoU, which aims to promote the tourism industry in Sri Lanka, Emirates and the SLTPB will launch a joint promotion programme. It is expected to organize tours to familiarize Sri Lanka with representatives of travel organisations and journalists. According to Sri Lanka’s Minister of Tourism, this agreement is signed for a period of one year, to be updated and extended after the end of the year.
Hospitality Sri Lanka
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