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October records highest tourist arrivals

04 Nov 2021

By Dinitha Rathnayake Total tourist arrivals from 28 December 2020 to 31 October 2021 from both the pilot and main tourism projects were 61,088, while passenger arrivals under Sri Lanka Tourism were 71,097 during the same period. The highest number of tourist arrivals was reported in October and the total arrivals during that month was 22,771. The top 10 markets identified from 1 to 31 October by the Tourism Ministry included India, the UK, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, Germany, the Maldives, Canada, France, the US, and Indonesia. A total of 2,258 tourists arrived in Sri Lanka during the pilot project which started in December 2020. According to Tourism Ministry statistics, the total number of tourists who arrived in December 2020 was 393, followed by 1,544 in January 2021, and 321 in February 2021. From the main project, 58,830 tourists arrived in the country from January to October. For the last 18 months, Sri Lanka observed strict quarantine measures for travellers and implemented a series of lockdowns to control the Covid-19 pandemic. These measures had been extremely hard-hitting for all tourism industry stakeholders, including nearly three million dependents due to the twin crises of the Easter Sunday terror attacks of April 2019 and the pandemic. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was of the view that the tourism industry must gradually be opened up with lesser restrictions for international travellers along with the aggressive vaccination drive, as it was a key foreign exchange earning sector for the economy. Sri Lanka lost around $ 10 billion in foreign exchange earnings, in an industry which usually generated $ 4.5 billion annually, due to the pandemic since last year. The pandemic has raged from March 2020 onwards and the latest drop in arrivals reinforces the continued struggles of the tourism industry.


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