Tourist arrivals top 100,000 by Feb.

Sri Lanka has welcomed over 100,000 tourists so far this year, led by Russians, despite the challenges emanating from the global COVID pandemic.

As per provisional data released by the Tourism Ministry yesterday, Sri Lanka has received 101,340 travellers as of 6 February.

During the first six days of February, a total of 19,013 tourists visited Sri Lanka, with an average of over 3,000 tourists per day.

Amid a surge in its COVID cases, Russia, with 16,369 tourists, continues to dominate among the top tourist source market for Sri Lanka followed by India with 13,838, UK 9,639, Ukrainian 9,152, and Germany 6,765.

In addition, tourists were also received from countries such as France, Poland, Australia, Kazakhstan and Maldives as of 6 February. 

Last month, Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga told the Daily FT that the monthly target of 100,000 to 125,000 arrivals will not be accomplished, noting that the future trend of tourism remains ‘uncertain’ amidst the evolving nature of the pandemic and other correlated variables such as travel restrictions, vaccination rates and efforts in curtailing the pandemic.