India became Sri Lanka’s top inbound tourist market in May with 5,562 arrivals while 3,723 came from the UK
Sri Lanka has decided to restart flights from Jaffna to India. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has asked the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority to chalk out plants to attract more Indian tourists. There are plans to attract 800,000 tourists during the rest of the year, reported PTI. Incidentally, India became Sri Lanka’s top inbound tourist market in May with 5,562 arrivals while 3,723 came from the UK.
The Prime Minister wants to resume flights from Jaffna’s Palaly airport to Indian destinations to facilitate travel. This was discussed during a meeting held with the industry stakeholders.
The economic downturn has been largely due to Covid-19 which saw the island’s tourism revenue and inward remittances dropping significantly
Despite the high number of tourists from Indian, he total number of international tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka in May dropped by almost 52 per cent, in comparison to April and 72 per cent in comparison to March. The tourist arrivals have gone down due to the current economic and political situation in the country with main market countries issuing adverse travel advisories.
Sri Lanka is in the midst of its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1948. There is an acute shortage of essential items like food, medicine, cooking gas and other fuel, toilet paper, and even matches.
The economic downturn has been largely due to Covid-19 which saw the island’s tourism revenue and inward remittances dropping significantly.
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