Sri Lankan tourism industry Archives

July 2023 records highest tourist arrivals since Covid outbreak-by Varuna Dayaratne Source:Dailynews July 2023 recorded the highest ever tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka within a single month since the onset of the Covid pandemic, surpassing the total number of tourist arrivals for the entire year of 2022, within just seven months. This is a tremendous boost for the Sri Lankan Tourism industry and a welcome change as the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority together with the Tourism Ministry has been working hard using every possible avenue to increase tourist arrivals from around the world, post Covid. The first 27 days of July 2023 recorded an outstanding 123,503 foreign visitors arriving in Sri Lanka which has propelled the cumulative number of tourist arrivals in the island to an incredible 748,377 thus far. ...

Sri Lanka Tourism launches membership drive for informal sector with support from Australia’s MDF Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), with the support from Market Development Facility (MDF), Australia’s flagship private sector development programme, has launched a membership drive to encourage informal sector tourism operators to register with SLTDA. The membership drive was launched recently with a trilingual video series featuring Kumar Sangakkara. “Tourism is led by the SMEs and hit hard by the pandemic which accounts for over 55 percent of the tourism industry. The key objective of this initiative is to motivate informal businesses to register with us and I invite informal sector establishments to register– we stand ready to help,” said Kimarli Fernando, Chairperson of Sri Lanka Tourism. “I would also like to extend my sincere gratitude to Sangakkara for helping us to initiate this and Market Development Facility (MDF) for assisting us,” she added. SLTDA welcomes ...