November tourist influx records highest since April

• November arrivals are up by 42.6% month-on-month to 59,759
• YTD arrivals at 628,017, but down 69.4% compared to same period pre-COVID 2018
• Daily average arrivals pick up slightly to 1,992 from 1,356 in October
• Russia tops arrivals in November with 13,820, followed by India with 10,167 and Germany with 5,169 
• Tourism Minister Harin Fernando welcomes rebound in arrivals

The tourism industry yesterday sounded upbeat over signs of a good start to the winter season with November arrivals topping over 59,000 mark recording the highest since April.

Sri Lanka welcomed 59,759 tourists in November up by 42.2%, from 42,026 in October and surpassing the 620,000 travellers in the first 11 months.

The boost in arrivals was largely influenced by the influx of Russian tourists and the resumption of many new international airlines and charter flights to Colombo.

Arrivals in the first 11 months amounted to 568,258 (as against 44,294 in COVID-hit 2021) – a welcome development for the triple-hit tourism industry, but performance is still down by 69.4% compared to the same period in pre-COVID 2018.

In November, Russia topped the tourist traffic to Sri Lanka with 13,820 tourists reflecting 23% of the total arrivals, followed by India with 10,167 tourists (17%), Germany with 5,169 (9%), UK with 4,506 (8%), and Australia with 2,939 (5%). In addition, tourists were also received from US, Canada, France, Maldives and Switzerland, the data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) showed. 

It also showed that the daily average arrivals have slightly picked up by 47% to 1,992 in November, compared to 1,356 recorded in October, following the exaggerated negative publicity on the ongoing economic crisis. It is evident that the daily arrivals on the two days – Monday and Thursday that the Russian flag carrier Aeroflot is operating to Colombo, are over 2,000, against the other days.

India also stood strong as the top tourist source market for Sri Lanka YTD with a cumulative number of arrivals at 105,654, followed by the UK with 77,308, Russia with 71,309, Germany with 50,558, France with 32,810, Australia with 25,766, Canada with 24,227, US 18,952, Maldives, 15,436 and Poland 14,671.

“Looking at the arrival numbers of November, it is very encouraging. We hope this momentum will strengthen further towards the next year,” Tourism Minister Harin Fernando told the Daily FT.

Sri Lanka has been included among the 20 Best Countries in the World as per the 2022 Readers’ Choice Awards conducted by the popular and influential magazine Condé Nast Traveller.

Italy tops the list, while Sri Lanka was ranked number 17 ahead of Israel, Turkey and South Africa respectively. 

Despite the slow progress, the industry stakeholders were encouraged by the rebound in arrivals, noting they are hopeful that it would strengthen further to achieve a target of around 750,000 tourists whilst generating $ 1.75 billion in income by the end of the year.

As per data released by the Central Bank, earnings from the tourism sector crossed the $ 1 billion mark in October.

From January to October earnings from tourism amounted to a total of $ 1.02 billion reflecting a 546% increase from the corresponding period of last year impacted by COVID-19.

The crossing of the $ 1 billion mark follows October earnings amounting to $ 75.6 million up from $ 53.6 million in September this year. In October last year earnings amounted to $ 59.3 million. (CdeS)