Sri Lanka attracts 30000 tourists in December – By Arundathie Abeysinghe
Over 30,000 tourists have arrived in Sri Lanka up to today (19) and aspires to attract the target of 800,000 by end of December. Setbacks experienced due to economic and political crisis, alongside protest campaigns that ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, tourist arrivals decreased during the first six months, this year. Currently, Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is on the way towards recovery. Tourism sector is gathering momentum with large numbers of tourists arriving in Sri Lanka.
*Ella is the most popular destination of tourists this year, followed by Kandy, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Galle.
Tourism sector plays a significant role in the island nation’s economy, making up 12 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the third largest source of foreign exchange, providing much-needed revenue for the government. Tourism brings employment opportunities adding thousands of direct and indirect jobs to the Sri Lankan economy.
According to Tourism Ministry sources, the current regime has earned over US $1 billion in foreign exchange from tourism receipts since taking office in late July, 2022. The Ministry estimates that by December 2022, Sri Lanka will earn approximately $1.7 billion from tourist arrivals.
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Approaching the tourist traffic target of 800,000 this year, the tourist arrivals during the first two weeks have crossed 30,000 with the total number of international visitors entering the country up to 658,210.
Meanwhile, the luxury cruise ship “Ocean Odyssey” with 108 affluent visitors from the US arrived in Colombo Port today (19), the fourth luxury cruise anchored within approximately a month from the arrival of the first such cruise liner signaling the revival of the country’s hospitality industry. The ship arrived at the Colombo Port from Cochin Port in India and is scheduled to sail to Trincomalee Port.
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Tourism Ministry is also planning to promote nautical tourism and luxury passenger cruise ship arrivals as a special niche in its new phase of “Tourism Development” harnessing the potential in the economic development of Sri Lanka.
Tourism Ministry is exploring the possibility of partnering with top blue-chip companies to enter the lucrative 40-billion-dollar cruise line business estimated to carry 22.3 million passengers, with the market growing at 3.2% in volume.
Luxury cruise ship, Azamara Quest arrived at Colombo Port on December 03 with over 600 passengers and the previous luxury cruise ship Mein Schiff 5 with 2,000 visitors docked at Colombo Port on November 29, reviving tourism prospects on the island battered by the long-term effects of Covid-19 lockdowns and months of political instability, this year.
On November 18, Norwegian luxury passenger cruise ship Viking Mars docked at the Colombo Port with 1,000 tourists. According to senior officials of Tourism Ministry, “having a cruise ship in the country is similar to having 10 aircrafts full of tourists.” Luxury cruise liners commenced to operate on the island after a six-month hiatus.
To attain the target of 800000 tourists, Sri Lanka needs to lure at least 141,790 tourists in the next two weeks and the daily arrival average needs to leap to 8,370.
According to provisional data released by Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, from December 01 to 13, the island nation welcomed 30,193 tourists, whereas the daily arrival average for the month of December so far is 2,322. The weekly analysis indicates that for the first week of December (01-07), 16,169 tourists entered the island, whereas in the second week so far (08-13), a total of 14,024 visitors have been welcomed.
The largest tourist traffic generator for December has been the Russian Federation, bringing in 21 percent of the total tourist arrivals. Ranking second is India, accounting for 18 percent of tourist arrivals and the United Kingdom, contributing to 9 percent of the total tourist traffic. Australia, Germany and the United States are other notable markets.
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