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Sept. tourism earnings fall while SL prepares for upturn in seasonal arrivals
Sri Lanka saw its earnings from the tourism trade falling in September for the second consecutive month due to weaker arrivals ahead of a more prospective season which has got underway from the start of October and ends in January.
According to the data available through September, tourism trade has brought in US$ 53.6 million in foreign exchange in the month, bringing the cumulative nine-month earnings to US$ 946.4 million.
September earnings were lower than both July and August when the figures for those two months were US$ 85.1 million and US$ 67.9 million respectively.
In the same month a year earlier the trade had earnings of US$ 35.3 million from 13, 547 visitors when the country was under lockdowns which was only lifted on October 1.
In this September, 29,802 tourists travelled to Sri Lanka which was below 37, 760 arrivals in August and 47,293 arrivals in July.
Sri Lanka’s monthly arrivals exceeded 100,000 through March as the country got off to a fine start to tourism with high hopes of the foreign exchange it could generate in 2022, after two years of near decimation of the industry due to the pandemic.
However, the economic crisis which was caused by the foreign currency shortage precipitated into a months-long social and political unrest dimmed industry prospects as key source markets imposed travel advisories against Sri Lanka before they were gradually relaxed from a couple of months ago.
While September is typically a muted month for arrivals, tourism authorities said the negative news coverage on the country’s economic and social conditions has had a bearing on the industry as many potential inbound tourists either look past Sri Lanka or cancelled their travel plans to the country.
As a result, Sri Lanka recently cut back its arrival target to around 800,000 to 850,000 by the end of the year from a million arrivals.
In the nine months, Sri Lanka has welcomed 526,232 visitors as tourists.
With the start of the winter season in Europe, Sri Lanka is looking at a possible increase in bookings, specially from countries such as Germany and Switzerland.
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