October tourist arrivals cross 42,000 mark recovering from Sept.

• India, Russian Federation, and the UK emerge as largest source markets for the month, and the year so far
• Resumption of services of several airlines this month could allow November to see improved arrivals
• November will also see SL hosting FIFA World Cup spectators between matches

Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka crossed the 42,000 mark in October after September recording the lowest number of international travellers for the year to-date.
According to provisional data from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), October saw 42,062 tourists entering the country.

With October arrivals, Sri Lanka has welcomed a total of 568,258 tourists in the first 10 months. The island nation crossed the 500,000 tourist arrival mark in mid-September.
The top three tourist traffic generators in October were India, Russian Federation and the United Kingdom (UK). The three markets accounted for 21 percent, 15 percent and 10 percent of the total arrivals respectively.
Other notable source markets for the month were Germany, Australia, and the Maldives. 

Cumulative analysis showed India, Russia and the United Kingdom as the three largest source markets in the first 10 months. During the period, Sri Lanka has welcomed 95,487 Indian tourists, 72, 802 Russian tourists and 57, 489 tourists from the UK. 

Aeroflot resumed operations to Sri Lanka during October, contributing to improved arrivals from Russia. Tourists from Russia are expected to further increase in the coming weeks as Aeroflot said about 75 percent of the tickets to Sri Lanka have already been booked for November 2022 to March 2023 period.
Further, Edelweiss, Air France, Royal Dutch Airlines, and Azur Air are expected to resume flights to Colombo from this month.

Sri Lanka tourism is also gearing up to lure a section of spectators to the upcoming FIFA World Cup, to be held in Doha, Qatar from 20 November, by hosting the fans between the matches. 
The Ministry of Tourism and Sri Lanka Tourism have kicked off efforts to uplift Negombo city to house FIFA spectators. Several initiatives, including packages from travel and tour companies, and an increase in flight frequencies from Qatar Airways are being rolled out targeting this customer segment.
Industry stakeholders are confident that the winter season will help the hard-hit sector to recover from the repeated shocks it had faced since 2019.

The month of March recorded the highest tourist arrival (106,500), while September saw the lowest tourist influx (29,802) for the year so far.
Sri Lanka aims to end 2022 with 800,000 tourist arrivals. Even if the country welcomes 100,000 tourists in the next two months, which is highly unlikely given the current economic scenario and sentiments, Sri Lanka will fall short of its target.