WORLD NEWS | Sri Lanka receives more than 125,000 tourists in March; Russians and Indians top arrival list

COLOMBO, April 3 (PTI) Sri Lanka welcomed more than 125,000 tourists in March this year, with Russians and Indians making up the majority of the tourists, Sri Lanka’s tourism department said on Monday.

Tourism is the main source of foreign exchange earnings for Sri Lanka. However, the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020 severely weakened the sector.

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This is one of the main reasons for Sri Lanka’s economic difficulties.

According to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), Sri Lanka received 1,25,495 tourists in March 2023, a staggering increase from the 1,065,000 tourists reported in the same month last year.

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Compared with the 107,639 arrivals in February and the 102,545 arrivals in January 2023, this represents an increase of 11.5%.

SLTDA chairperson Priantha Fernando told the media that Sri Lanka will receive more than 323,000 tourists in the first three months of 2023.

Interestingly, this is the first time since 2019 that the island nation has welcomed more than 100,000 tourists for three consecutive months.

Over 39,000 Russians visited Sri Lanka in March 2023, topping the list of tourists visiting Sri Lanka, followed by Indians accounting for almost 19,000 visits.

SLTDA officials attributed the resumption of direct flights between Moscow and Colombo and the easing of measures imposed due to the pandemic to the increase in Russian tourists in the country.

In October 2022, Russian flag carrier Aeroflot resumed commercial operations to Sri Lanka after authorities briefly detained a plane in a legal dispute after the airline suspended flights to the island nation for more than four months.

Likewise, Indian tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka surged an impressive 38% last month compared to February.

Experts attribute this to growing ties between the two countries, an increase in direct flights between Colombo and major Indian cities, and a series of initiatives such as the “Ramayana Trail” and “Visit Sri Lanka” launched last year.

Sri Lanka has been in the midst of a severe economic, humanitarian and political crisis for the last year.

Sri Lanka has seen street protests against the government since April last year due to the government’s mishandling of the economic crisis.

In September 2022, the IMF announced a $2.9 billion rescue package to help the country weather its worst economic crisis.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)