World News | Sri Lanka Welcomes over 1.25 Lakh Tourists in March; Russians & Indians Top List of Arrivals

Colombo, Apr 3 (PTI) Sri Lanka welcomed over 1.25 lakh tourists in March this year, with Russians and Indians accounting for the bulk of the arrivals, the country's tourism department said on Monday.

The tourism sector is the main source of foreign exchange earnings for Sri Lanka. However, the onset of the pandemic in 2020 severely crippled this sector.

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It was one of the major reasons for Sri Lanka's economic travails.

Sri Lanka welcomed 1,25,495 tourists in March 2023, an impressive jump from the 1,06,500 lakh arrivals reported during the same month last year, according to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA).

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It is an 11.5 per cent increase from February's tourist arrivals of 107,639, while 102,545 tourists arrived in Sri Lanka in January 2023.

Sri Lanka has welcomed over 323,000 tourists in the first three months of 2023, SLTDA chairman Priantha Fernando told the media.

Interestingly, this is the first time since 2019 that the island nation has welcomed over 1,00,000 tourists for three consecutive months.

Over 39,000 Russians visited Sri Lanka in March 2023, topping the list of tourists to visit Sri Lanka, followed by Indians who accounted for close to 19,000 arrivals.

SLTDA officials attribute the resumption of direct flights between Moscow and Colombo and the easing of the measures imposed due to the pandemic as the reasons for the rise of Russian tourists in the country.

In October 2022, Russia's flagship carrier Aeroflot resumed commercial operations to Sri Lanka, more than four months after the airline suspended its flights to the island nation after authorities here briefly detained an aircraft over a legal dispute.

Similarly, Indians witnessed an impressive 38 per cent jump in tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka in the previous month as compared to February.

Experts attribute this to the growing ties between the two countries, the increase in direct flights between Colombo and major Indian cities as well as the slew of initiatives like the "Ramayana Trail" and the "Visit Sri Lanka" campaigns launched last year.

Sri Lanka has been in the midst of a major economic, humanitarian and political crisis last year.

There have been street protests in Sri Lanka against the government since April last year due to the government's mishandling of the economic crisis.

In September 2022, the IMF announced a USD 2.9 billion bailout package to help the country tide over its worst economic crisis.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)