Over 300,000 tourists so far this year amidst crises

• First five days of April attract 14,836 tourists, pushing cumulative figure to 300,170
• Daily average of tourists fell from over 3,500 to 2,967 in first five days of April
• UK tops tourist arrivals in first five days with 3,567 followed by India 2,225 and Germany 1,638
• Suspension of direct flights to Moscow, conflict between Russia-Ukraine, declaration of State of Emergency on 1 April impact adversely on forward bookings from India 
• Tourism Chief Kimarli Fernando express optimism that numbers will continue to grow

Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka have exceeded 300,000 mark, despite the multiple challenges emanating from the beginning of the month.

As per the provisional data released by the Tourism Ministry yesterday, a total of 14,836 tourists have arrived during the first five days of the month, whilst pushing the cumulative figure to 300,170 so far. 

However, it is notable that the daily average arrivals have dropped significantly from over 3,600 to 2,967 tourists in April, following the declaration of state of emergency, political unrest, power and energy crisis. 

The downward trend in arrivals is quite visible with daily figures. On 1 April, 3,222 tourists arrived, on 2 April 4,114, on 3 April 2,769, on 4 April 2,734 and on 5 April 1,997 travellers were received. 

Last month, Sri Lanka’s monthly tourist arrivals crossed the 100,000 mark for the first time in two years, whilst surpassing the 194,500 tourists recorded for the entirety of 2021, despite many internal and external challenges. 

As of 5 April, the UK topped the tourist traffic to Sri Lanka with 3,567, followed by India with 2,225, and Germany with 1,638 tourists. In addition, tourists were also received from France, Australia, Belgium, Russia, US, Canada and Switzerland.

However, India stands strong as the top tourists source market for Sri Lanka with cumulative number of arrivals at 49,936, followed by Russia with 38,180, UK 34,558, Germany 24,318, France 15,873, Ukraine 13,509, Poland 11,087, Australia 7,574, Kazakhstan 7,542 and US 7,243.

Compared to the first quarter numbers, it is evident that the suspension of direct flights to Moscow by national carrier, SriLankan Airlines, the conflict between Russia-Ukraine and the economic crisis escalated into a political instability following the declaration of state of emergency on 1 April had severely impacted in the forward bookings from Sri Lanka’s biggest source market — India as well. 

Sri Lanka aims to lure 1.3 million tourists by the end of the year whilst expecting earnings to be $ 2.4 billion.

“The tourists will continue to come and there are many of them holidaying in various parts of the country. In fact, most of them also tell the world through their social media platforms that the real-time situation in Sri Lanka is not as bad as most media try to portray,” Sri Lanka Tourism Chairperson Kimarli Fernando told Daily FT.

She said that tourists were allowed to move about even amidst the 36-hour curfew imposed over the weekend and the State of Emergency declared by the Government.