Tourist arrivals up in February
View(s):There has been increasing arrival of tourists last month reaching 3,366 compared with the January arrivals of 1, 682.
The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) stated that these numbers are a clear reflection of the “unprecedented health, social and economic crisis caused by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
However compared to 2020 this year’s numbers have indicated a decline of 99.3 per cent and 38.4 per cent for the months of January and February respectively.
Highest arrivals were recorded from Kazakhstan with 1,231 visitors followed by Ukraine (845), Germany (245), Russia (119), China (117), India (79), the UK (75), the US (75), Canada (71) and Belarus (44) that have now become the top 10 source markets for Sri Lanka during the pandemic.
SLTDA states that “The increased tourist arrivals from the Central and Eastern European countries could be partly owing to the pilot project carried out from 28th December 2020 by the Government of Sri Lanka. This has resulted in Kazakhstan and Ukraine moving in to the top positions of the main source markets.”
Europe has become the largest source of tourist traffic to Sri Lanka with 85.7 per cent of the total traffic received in February 2021. Asia and Pacific accounted for 8.9 per cent of the total traffic while Americas accounted for 4.7 per cent.