Sri Lanka expects to attract 1 million visitors

Friday, September 2, 2022

In 2022, Sri Lanka is expecting to draw an enormous 1 million tourists, including from Indians, on Wednesday, a senior tourism official said this, as the cash-strapped island is keeping no stone unturned to triumph over its worst financial disaster in decades. From January to July 2022, India topped the list of tourists in Sri Lanka with over 74,000 arrivals, as per the Tourism Development Authority of Sri Lanka. At the second and third spots were the UK, with 58,000 arrivals and Russia with 48,000 on the list. Priantha Fernando told reporters on Wednesday that they are hoping 1 million tourists in 2022. The revenue of $1.8 billion is anticipated, if the arrivals at present total 500,000 are to be doubled by the year-end of 2022, according to official estimates.

For Sri Lanka, the tourism sector is the key foreign exchange earner. However, the start of COVID-19 has jeopardized this sector, and it’s one of the primary reasons for the economic travails of the country.

Fernando said that for tourism, 2018 was the best year with 2.3 million arrivals. That year, the tourism sector with $4.3 billion in revenues was placed the third largest foreign exchange earner behind expat remittances and the apparel export industry.

The tourism sector in 2019, took a huge hit due to the Easter Sunday terror attack. Whereas, the year 2020 and 2021 frightened tourists with the attack of Covid-19. In 2021, Sri Lanka witnessed tourist footfalls of 1, 94,000 only.

« Back to Page