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A group of Indian tourists visiting the Gangaramaya Temple, at Colombo 2 yesterday – Pic by Ruwan Walpola
By Charumini de Silva
Despite it being a ‘crisis year’, tourist arrivals grew at a faster pace in 2022 with a post-COVID all-time high, regardless of missing the 750,000 revised target thanks to a record haul in December, official data released yesterday confirmed.
Sri Lanka ended 2022 with 719,978 tourists, up by 207% over 2021, in which year the increase was only 73%. In 2019, arrivals growth was 18%.The 2022 performance, however, was still 69% lower in comparison to the record achievement of 2.3 million in 2018.
Sri Lanka originally targeted 800,000 tourist arrivals for 2022, but following the highest number of travellers in March Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) revised it to 1 million arrivals in July, but then due to the socio-political instability it was revised again in October to 800,000 as September recorded the lowest numbers for a month. The officials subsequently revised the annual projection again in December to 750,000 and later to 720,000.
“We have fallen slightly short of the 720,000 tourist arrivals target for last year, although we had an increased number of visitors towards the last few weeks of December. The target was missed mainly due to the political and economic instability we saw post-March,” Tourism Minister Harin Fernando told Daily FT.
Tourist arrivals during December reached a record 91,961, up 3% from a year earlier. In terms of arrivals, January, February, and December recorded the highest growth rates in 2022, while March recorded a post-COVID all-time high surpassing 100,000 tourists in a month after two years.
The record haul in December also overshadowed industry concerns following the pandemic, political instability and the worst economic crisis post-independence. December arrivals were also the third highest month of arrivals in 2022 and the highest post-April.
Russia topped the tourist inflow in December reflecting 22% or 19,963, followed by India with 17,350, the UK with 7,879, Australia with 5,158, and Germany with 4,984.
The boost in December, arrivals was largely influenced by the influx of Russian tourists and the arrival of the luxury cruise liners ─ Azamara Quest, Ocean Odyssey and Silver Spirit as well as the resumption of many international airlines and charter flights, the global promotions at the ITM Paris, India and WTM were the key reasons for the favourable pick-up arrival figures.
In 2022, India remained strong as the top tourist source market for Sri Lanka with a cumulative number of arrivals at 123,004. Russia also emerged as the second biggest source market relegating the UK to number three.
There had been 91,272 tourists from the Russian Federation. The UK was third with 85,187, followed by Germany with 55,542, France with 35,467, Australia with 30,924, Canada with 26,845, the US with 22,230, Maldives with 18,880 and Poland with 15,195.
The data also showed that the daily average arrivals have slightly picked up by 49% to 2,963 in December, compared to November 2022.
“We have set an ambitious arrival target of 1.5 million tourists for next year and a 3 million arrivals target for 2024. I am confident that Sri Lanka can make a leapfrog to growth from 2024 onwards. I pray and hope we will be able to go forward without any further obstacles or disruption from any quarter,” he added.
Minister Fernando also said Sri Lanka is aiming to generate over $ 5 billion in income next year with high-end travellers who spend over $ 400 per day from the current $ 200.
He said Sri Lanka Tourism will explore new markets such as Japan, Korea, Georgia, Australia, New Zealand and Eastern Europe countries, adding that plans are also underway to attract the many US tourists coming from India to Sri Lanka.
