Indian tourists accounted for 17% of all tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka in 2022, according to reports.
Close to 120,000 tourists visited the island nation from India this year out of a total of 700,000. Russia was the second-largest source market with close to 87,000 tourists this year.
The Government expects tourist arrivals to hit 720,000 in total by the end of the year.
The number of tourist arrivals in 2021 stood at just over 194,000. The Minister of Tourism recently lauded the recent rebound in tourism as a great response by international holiday travellers and said that tourism has picked up over the last three months.
Tourism, which contributes over $ 4 billion to the Sri Lankan economy annually, was hit hard for the last two years due to the pandemic and related lockdowns, as well as the economic crisis in Sri Lanka.