Sri Lanka has already earned revenue in the excess of USD 1 billion from tourism receipts so far and will end the year 2022 with USD. 1.7 billion Minister of Tourism and lands Harin Fernando said.
He said that Sri Lanka also has accounted for around 600,000 arrivals so far and hoped to woo 200,000 more arrivals in November and December this year.
“However I must admit that this is definitely lower than the anticipated target of one million arrivals and USD 2 billion revenue we anticipated. “I must also say that during the political crisis before new President Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed Sri Lanka saw over 30 flights being pulled out on a weekly basis.
He attributed this to the country’s situation, negative travel advisories by European countries and other similar factors. “However we can all see that the country is now moving in the right direction and I predict that Sri Lanka would be able to net in revenue in the excess of USD 2 billion and over 2 million arrivals in 2023.”
Russia will resume daily flights to Sri Lanka and several new airlines too would be once again flying to Colombo with high load factors. In addition Emirates, Qatar Airways and flydubai have also increased frequency to Sri Lanka.
Minister Fernando lashed out at the political participants of the protest march scheduled for today (2) and said that it’s solely aimed at disrupting the Sri Lankan economy and tourism sector which is now limping back to normalcy. “I appeal to political leaders to refrain from organizing events of this nature as it will create negative publicity which may result in cancellations in the tourism sector.”
He said that JVP recently organized a calm protest in Hyde Park adhering to all norms of the society and such protests are welcome in democracy. He said that Sri Lanka is fielding the largest team of nearly 90 local travel sector stakeholders for the World Tourism market (WTM) in London starting next week after a lapse of three years and these protests will have negative sentiments on Sri Lankan destination promotions.
