For the first time after three years Sri Lanka was able to record a six digit tourism arrival figure of around 102, 000 for the month of January 2023 signaling major revival of the industry.
Also recording another unique achievement there were 1,269 Russian arrivals yesterday which is the highest number of Russian arrivals per day up to now. Around 1,800 Russian tourists landed in Sri Lanka from the Bandaranaike international airport (BIA) and a further 410 arrived at Mattala Airport (MRIA) on four flights yesterday.
Re-writing the arrivals patterns of Sri Lanka, the Russian Federation accounted for the highest number of arrivals for January with around 24,000 tourists while India slipped to the second growth market with approximately 14, 000 arrivals. The United Kingdom remained in third place in terms of arrivals with around 8,100 while Germany (8,000) and France 4,600 followed.
Sri Lanka which attracted 719,978 arrivals for 2022 is targeting 1.5 million tourists for 2023. (CG)