November tourism income surpasses US$ 100mn for first time since April 

A group of tourists recently brought in by the cruise ship ‘Mein Schiff 5’ exploring Colombo 
Pic by Pradeep Pathirena

As Sri Lanka is currently witnessing a long awaited revival in its thrice-battered tourism industry, the country saw the earnings from the trade surpassing US$ 100 million in November after languishing for months since the economy collapsed early this year sparking country wide protests which caused political and social mayhem. 

In November, Sri Lanka earned US$ 107.5 million from tourism trade, first time since April when the country last saw over US$ 100 million from the trade. 
This brings the cumulative 11-month income from the trade to US$ 1,129.4 million, compared to US$ 273.6 million in the corresponding period in 2021 when the industry was beset by the pandemic.  

After two years of near decimation due to pandemic restrictions and resultant border controls, Sri Lanka was looking for a fast rebound in the tourism trade in 2022.
Sharp increase in global travel was seen when the virus restrictions eased.
This is why although the goods related inflation around the world have shown early signs of cooling of late, the services related inflation still remains elevated as people have increased their spending on travel, restaurants and hotels, and other recreational activities.

Loss of revenue from tourism for three years in a row was the predominant reason among other things for the current economic crisis confronting the country as Sri Lanka was estimated to have lost nearly US$ 15 billion from the trade from 2020 through 2022. 
At its highest levels, Sri Lanka’s deficit in the balance of payment in 2021 was shy of US$ 4.0 billion, after a US$ 2.3 billion deficit in 2020.

While Sri Lanka got off to a fine start in 2022, the momentum fizzled out from April onwards when the country fell into its deepest economic crisis firing runaway inflation, causing rolling power cuts and prolonged shortages in fuel and other key commodities, which sparked political and social unrest triggering Sri Lanka’s key source markets to issue travel advisories. 
However, the situation now has largely been brought under control with key political and economic reforms being rolled out. The near-normalcy has prompted many countries to withdraw the travel advisories on Sri Lanka. As a result, Sri Lanka is looking forward to a good winter season in terms of tourist arrivals.  
The cheaper rupee against the dollar is also making Sri Lanka an affordable destination for foreign travellers after the currency float resulted in the rupee shedding 80 percent of its value against the dollar. 

All these reasons helped the country to receive 59, 759 visitors, again for the first time since April, taking the cumulative 11 months arrivals to 628, 017. 
While the 2022 arrivals might end up short of its 800,000 arrivals this year, the authorities are expecting to welcome 1.5 million visitors in 2023 with expected earnings of US$ 5.0 billion before doubling arrivals to 3.0 million in 2024, which is not totally impossible.