Tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka decline over 70 per cent in March

The number of international tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka declined for the twelfth straight month in March 2020 by 70.8 per cent in comparison to a year ago as the tourism industry is hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak.

The total number of international tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka up to March 18, 2020 was 71,370. This was due to the termination of all passenger flights and ship arrivals into Sri Lanka from March 18, the Sri Lanka Tourist Development Authority said in its Monthly Tourist Arrivals Report for March 2020, Colombo Page reported.

In comparison to March last year, there was a decline of 70.8 per cent when the arrivals were 244,328.

In March, the largest source market for tourists was India, followed by the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom.

Europe became the largest source of tourist traffic to Sri Lanka with 60 per cent of the total traffic received in March 2020.

Asia and Pacific accounted for 34 per cent of the total traffic, Americas 4.6 per cent, Middle East 0.9 per cent and Africa 0.5 per cent.

In comparison to March last year the highest decline of 85.7 per cent was recorded for the Middle East region while Americas recorded a decline of 83.4 per cent. Africa recorded a decline of 77.9 per cent whereas Asia and the Pacific region recorded a decline of 75.4 per cent. A decline of 64.3 per cent was recorded from Europe.

The effect of the outbreak of COVID-19 is clearly evident as all countries have recorded a decline in tourist arrivals.

India, the Russian Federation, United Kingdom, Germany and France were Sri Lanka’s top five international tourist generating markets in the month of March this year.

India was the largest source of tourist traffic to Sri Lanka with 17.7 per cent of the total traffic received in March 2020. The Russian Federation accounted for 12.4 per cent of the total traffic while the United Kingdom Germany and France accounted for 11.2 per cent, 9.3 per cent and 5.7 per cent respectively.

China which dropped from the top ten tourist generating markets of Sri Lanka in the month of February has climbed up to the ninth position among the top ten markets despite the outbreak of COVID-19. India, United Kingdom, Russian Federation, Germany and China were Sri Lanka’s top five international tourist generating markets from January to March this year. India was the largest source of tourist traffic to Sri Lanka with 18 per cent of the total traffic received from January to March 2020. UK accounted for 11 per cent of the total traffic; while Russian Federation, Germany and China accounted for 10 per cent, 7 per cent and 5 per cent respectively.

Sri Lanka’s government is reimposing a 24-hour curfew across the Indian Ocean island nation on Thursday after a recent resurgence of coronavirus cases.

Sri Lanka has had 630 COVID-19 patients including seven deaths. Of the total, 308 cases were reported after April 22 and many of them are navy sailors or their close contacts.

The virus is believed to have entered a navy camp after sailors were deployed to search for a group of drug-addicted people who had contact with a COVID-19 patient and were evading quarantine. Authorities have isolated the camp and taken steps to quarantine about 4,000 troops there after infections rose.

The blanket curfew resumes at 8 p.m. It was originally imposed March 20 but had been eased in recent days for about two-thirds of the country. The easing of the curfew had allowed movement by people in districts where the spread of the virus had been low. The capital, Colombo, is among the districts considered high-risk and its 24-hour curfew was never eased.

Sailors at a Sri Lankan naval base have become the biggest cluster of coronavirus infections in the Indian Ocean island nation with 248 testing positive for the disease, authorities said Thursday.

Sri Lanka’s army chief Lt. Gen. Shavendra Silva said that out of 30 cases discovered in the last 24 hours, 22 are navy sailors and another seven had close contact with them.

The virus is believed to have entered the camp on the outskirts of the capital, Colombo, last week when sailors were deployed to hunt down a group of drug addicts who had contact with a COVID-19 patient and were evading quarantine. The virus then spread to different parts of the country when sailors went on home leave.

About 4,000 navy troops are being quarantined inside the camp while 242 relatives have been taken to four quarantine centers run by the navy.

Agencies