(LANKAPUVATH | COLOMBO) – Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga says that 76,538 tourists have visited the country from January 1 to January 29.
During this period 12,368 tourists arrived in the country from the Russian Federation, 11,028 have arrived from India and 7,427 from Ukraine.
During those 29 days, 6,929 tourists arrived from the United Kingdom, 4,902 from Germany and 3,337 from France.
According to the latest reports from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) tourists have also arrived from Poland, Australia, the Maldives and Kazakhstan.
The number of tourists who visited the country last year was 194,495. In January of that year only 1,682 tourists arrived in Sri Lanka.
More than 1.1 million tourists are expected to visit the country this year.
Minister Prasanna Ranatunga says the government has already initiated a short term, medium term and long term program to increase the tourist arrivals.
The Minister said although the global tourism industry has been hampered again with the spread of the Covid Omicron variant, with the success of Sri Lanka’s vaccination program, more and more tourists are paying attention to Sri Lanka.
