Tourism industry begins 2023 with over 100,000 arrivals in January

Thirty German travel agents arrived yesterday for a 7-day familiarisation tour in Sri Lanka - Pic by T. K. G. Kapila

• Russia leads as top market with 25,254, followed by India, UK, Germany and France
• Daily average arrivals pick up to 3,308 from 2,000 levels last year
• Tourism Minister Harin Fernando says growth in arrivals encouraging

With January arrivals breaking the 100,000 mark for the first time in nine months, Sri Lanka’s tourism industry starts out in 2023 on a positive note.

As per provisional data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority yesterday, a total of 102,545 tourists arrived in January. However, January arrivals could not beat the 106,500 recorded in March 2022 – the highest for a month since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020.

January tourist arrivals recorded an increase of 25% year-on-year, largely influenced by Russian tourists, maintaining the lead ahead of India.

From 1 to 7 January, 20,875 tourists were received, whilst from 8 to 14 January 23,295 travellers, from 15 to 21 January 24,796 holidaymakers and from 22 to 31 January 33,579 visitors arrived in the country.

Daily arrivals have also increased to 3,308 compared to over 2,000 levels last year showing a significant improvement.

Russia accounted for 25,254 or 25% of the total tourists, followed by India with 13,759 or 13%, the UK with 8,483 or 8%, Germany with 8,217 or 8%, and France with 4,840 or 5%.

Tourism accounts for close to 5% of Sri Lanka’s economy. The industry is hopeful of achieving 1.55 million visitors by the end of this year while expecting tourism earnings to be $ 2.88 billion.

“It is encouraging to see the boost in arrivals. We hope the industry will be able to maintain the growth momentum throughout the year,” Tourism Minister Harin Fernando told the Daily FT.

Originally for 2023, Sri Lanka Tourism set an ambitious target of 1.5 million arrivals and an income of $ 5 billion.

The MICE tourism segment is earmarked as a key segment Sri Lanka looks to explore this year to push the numbers and earnings.

Despite it being a ‘crisis year’ Sri Lanka ended 2022 with 719,978 tourists, up by 207% over 2021. Though missing the original target of 750,000 arrivals, the Minister said the provisional data shows that the earnings target of $ 1.2 billion was achieved last year.