Tourist arrivals down for second consecutive month in March

„March tourist arrivals down 2.5% to 188,076 „Analysts say partial airport closure could be a culprit „Arrivals from Western Europe, Middle East, South Asia down „Cumulative arrivals in first 3 months up 3.4% to 604,953

Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka fell for the second consecutive month for this year in March and second time since the end of the country’s civil war in May, 2009, the data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority showed.

Accordingly, March tourist arrivals fell 2.5 percent year-onyear (YOY) to 188,076.

However, the cumulative arrivals for the first three months of the year rose 3.4 percent YOY to 604,953.

The overall decline in arrivals in March, according to analysts, could be due to the partial closure of the country’s main air port in Katunayake for runway resurfacing. The airport is set to operate fully from tomorrow, following the completion of the runway repair work.

Along with the partial airport closure, the decline in arrivals in February was caused by a slowdown in Chinese arrivals. However, in March, arrivals from China picked up 13 percent YOY to 22,172.

However, arrivals from South Asia fell 9.9 percent YOY to 39,804 with tourist arrivals from India, the Maldives and Pakistan falling over 10 percent YOY.

Arrivals from the Middle East also showed a decline of 20.1 percent YOY to 8,064 with tourists from Saudi Arabia declining 44.1 percent YOY to 2,034.

Arrivals from Western Europe led by the UK and Germany fell 6.2 percent YOY to 65,640.

Tourist arrivals from Eastern Europe led by Russia rose 13.9 percent YOY to 19,248.

Tourist arrivals and revenue from tourism hit record highs in 2016 with annual arrivals jumping 14 percent to record 2.05 million.

Revenue in 2016 hit US $ 3.4 billion, beating the previous record of US $ 2.98 billion in 2015, the data by the country’s Central Bank showed.