Sri Lanka expects 1.55 mn tourists in 2023; boost revenue to overcome economic crisis

Sri Lanka is expecting 1.55 million tourists led by visitors from India in 2023, chairman of the countrys tourism development authority Priyantha Fernando said on Wednesday, as the debt-trapped island nation steps up its effort to overcome its unprecedented economic crisis.Fernando said that Sri Lanka is targeting almost 260,000 Indian arrivals in 2023 and also expecting a surge in the traffic of Chinese tourists.We are expecting 1.55 million tourist arrivals this year and it is quite promising.

Sri Lanka is expecting 1.55 million tourists led by visitors from India in 2023, chairman of the country's tourism development authority Priyantha Fernando said on Wednesday, as the debt-trapped island nation steps up its effort to overcome its unprecedented economic crisis.

Fernando said that Sri Lanka is targeting almost 260,000 Indian arrivals in 2023 and also expecting a surge in the traffic of Chinese tourists.

"We are expecting 1.55 million tourist arrivals this year and it is quite promising. We are targeting almost 260,000 Indian arrivals this year. With the Chinese traffic opening up this month there will be further increases," Fernando was quoted as saying by the EconomyNext news portal.

According to the official, Sri Lanka ended with 102,545 tourists in the month of January 2023 and in the first week of February 2023 it received 18,000 tourists.

Tourism accounts for about 5 per cent of Sri Lanka's Gross Domestic Product, with Britain, India and China being the main markets.

Sri Lanka is facing its worst foreign exchange crisis after the Covid-19 pandemic hit the nation's earnings from tourism and remittances.

The decline in revenue generated from tourism initially started dwindling after the Easter terror attacks in April 2019 and was thereafter further dented by the COVID pandemic and the economic crisis.

In 2019, before the Coronavirus crisis hit, Sri Lanka welcomed 1.9 million tourists.

In that year Sri Lanka welcomed 355,002 tourists from India, 198,776 from the UK and 167,863 from China.

Indian tourists are expected to spend about USD 1,850 per person in Sri Lanka, Fernando said.

However, some tourists spend much more, including in the duty-free sales, he said.

He further said that authorities have allowed tourists to bring up to 10,000 Indian rupees and spend the money in Sri Lanka.

"Definitely that is going to help tourism as well as and now Indians get good value for money 4.70 for 1 rupee," Fernando said.

Russians who have trouble with Ruble may also be able to bring Indian rupees, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)