Tourist arrivals off to a great start in January

• Over 29,000 tourists visited country from Jan. 01-10
• In 2021, arrivals crossed 20,000 mark only in Oct.

Sri Lanka’s tourism sector has witnessed a great start to the new year, with the country being successful in attracting over 29,000 international visitors within the first 10 days of January. 
The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), in an update, 

shared that the island nation welcomed a total of 29,420 tourists from January 01 to 10, a significant improvement in the rate of tourist arrivals.  It was only in October 2021 that the tourist arrivals crossed the 20,000 mark, after Sri Lanka opened its boarders in January 2021. 

According to the data shared by the SLTDA, Russia was the biggest source of tourism traffic to Sri Lanka. India, Ukraine, the UK and Germany ranked behind Russia as the top five source markets for the January 01-10 period.

While from Russia a total of 5,432 tourists arrived, Sri Lanka welcomed 5,175 tourists from India, 2,820 tourists from Ukraine, 2,112 tourists from the UK and 1,916 tourists from Germany. 

The SLTDA is working towards a target of attracting at least 100,000 tourists per month for 2022, to realise a year-end target of 2.3 million arrivals. To reach the ambitious monthly goal, Sri Lanka will have to attract 70,580 more tourists before the end of January, which is to have about 3,500 arrivals per day for the next 20 days.