The Tourism Ministry yesterday said authorities were seeing a decline in the arrival of Chinese tourists to Sri Lanka with 1,936 nationals recorded since 26 January.  

A total of 18,283 tourists from China arrived in Sri Lanka last month, of which 16,463 travelled by air. In January 2019, 26,414 tourists from China visited Sri Lanka, a slight increase from the 24,275 Chinese tourists that visited Sri Lanka in January 2018. However, the outbreak of the coronavirus in China has resulted in a decline in the number of Chinese tourists visiting Sri Lanka.

Measures have been put in place to ensure carriers of the coronavirus cannot enter the country via Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) and 24 hour monitoring is conducted by BIA staff with assistance from the Health and Indigenous Medicine Services Ministry and Sri Lanka Army medical teams, the Ministry said in a statement. 

According to a statement issued by the Tourism and Aviation Ministry yesterday, 4,028 passengers have arrived at BIA since 26 January, of which 323 are Sri Lankan and 1,936 are Chinese nationals. There has, however, been a decrease in the number of Chinese tourists in the past few days, the statement said.

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