Tourist arrivals fall 31.5% in 1Q with 71% dip in March

• Sharp drop in all regional source markets driven by COVID-19 pandemic

Tourist arrivals have fallen by 31.5% to 507,311 in the first quarter, with March suffering a 71% plunge, largely owing to the initial spread of COVID-19 globally and enforcement of travel restrictions.

According to the latest data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), March marked the third consecutive month of decline in tourist arrivals, by 70.8% to 71,370 compared to 244,328 from a year earlier.

In January, arrivals fell by 6.5% to 228,434 and in February arrivals further declined by 17.7% to 207,507.

Arrivals from all five regional markets also fell sharply in Q1 from a year earlier.

The overall European regional arrivals fell by 25.7% to 281,203, Asia and Pacific fell by 38.1% to 181, 154, Americas fell by 38.3% to 31,843, the Middle Eastern fell by 21.7% to 10,231 and the African fell by 38.7% to 2,880 during the first three months of the year. Sri Lanka’s top 10 source markets in Q1 include India, the United Kingdom, the Russian Federation, Germany, China, France, Australia, the United States, Ukraine and Canada. However, of the top 10 source markets, only the Russian Federation and Ukraine managed to record positive growth in tourist arrival numbers during the first three months.

India, the United Kingdom, the Russian Federation, Germany and China were Sri Lanka’s top five international tourist generating markets in Q1. India was the largest source of tourist traffic to Sri Lanka with 18% of the total traffic received from January to March 2020, while the UK accounted for 11%, the Russian Federation, Germany and China accounted for 10%, 7% and 5% respectively.

Industry experts predicted that Sri Lanka will see a sharp slowdown in tourist arrivals owing to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which has killed over 200,000 and infected nearly three million people worldwide. 

In early March, Sri Lanka Tourism acknowledged that tourism industry was one of the hardest hit by the outbreak of COVID-19 and told Daily FT that the 2020 arrivals and earnings forecast would be revised following the impact of the pandemic and the shutdown of the Bandaranaike Airport (BIA).

Prior to the emergence of COVID-19, Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga in January said the target for 2020 was 3.5 to four million tourists and $ 5 billion in earnings, up from 1.9 million tourists and $ 3.6 billion in earnings in Easter Sunday tragedy-hit 2019 and 2.3 million and $ 4.38 billion in 2018.