SL reaches tourist arrival target for 2021 with improved performance in December

• December arrivals almost double from November
• 2021 year-end arrivals down 61.7 percent from 2020
• Top five source markets for 2021: India, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Ukraine

 Tourist arrivals in the month of December nearly doubled from November with 89,505 international visitors entering the country.

However, despite the improved arrivals witnessed last month, cumulative arrivals for 2021 stood at 194, 496, recording a decline of 61.7 percent compared to 2020.

Data from the Sri Lanka Tourist Development Authority (SLTDA) showed that the largest source markets for the month of December were India, Russia, the United Kingdom, followed by Germany and Ukraine.

Europe became the largest source of tourist traffic to Sri Lanka with 54.4 percent of the total traffic received in December 2021. 

“Given the escalating number of COVID-19 cases, this can be considered a significant growth. Pent-up demand especially from countries such as Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Ukraine is likely to have driven this growth momentum,” Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority said in its monthly tourist arrivals report released yesterday.

Asia and Pacific accounted for 37.2 percent of total arrivals last month, while Americas accounted for 5.4 percent of the total traffic, and the Middle East 2.5 percent.

In comparison to December last year, all regions have recorded declines in arrivals.

“Even though signs of recovery were evident, the uncertainty for the travel industry is mounting again with countries already practicing restrictions and border closures with the emergence of the new Omicron variant. 
It is anticipated that increasing cases in Europe will further dampen consumer confidence which was gradually building after the devastating Delta variant,” the SLTDA said.

For the whole of 2021, the top source markets for Sri Lanka Tourism were India, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Ukraine. 

All the countries, except Kazakhstan remained in the top ten markets from January to December, 2021.