Sri Lanka records over 70% fall in tourist arrivals for March

Sri Lanka has registered a major fall in tourist arrivals due to the coronavirus outbreak, with an over 70 percent decline in footfalls in March compared to the same period last year, according to a media report. The island nation stopped all passenger flights and ship services on March 18 given the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Till then in March, 71,370 international tourists visited Sri Lanka, the Colombo Page quoted the Sri Lanka Tourist Development Authority's Tourist Arrivals Report for March 2020. In March last year, the country received 2,44,328 international tourists, recording a 70.8 percent drop for March 2020, the daily reported.

According to the monthly data, Indian tourists accounted for the largest number of arrivals followed by tourists from Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France. Europe accounted for 60 percent of the tourist traffic in March 2020.

The Asia-Pacific region made up 34 percent of the tourist footfalls followed by the North and South Americas at 4.6 percent, the Middle East at 0.9 percent, and Africa at 0.5 percent. There was a marked decline in the numbers from all regions in comparison to last year.

Tourist arrivals from the Middle East fell by 85.7 percent, from the Americas by 83.4 percent, Africa recorded a decline of 77.9 percent. The Asia-Pacific region registered a fall of 75.4 percent and Europe a fall of 64.3 percent.

While all countries registered a fall, arrivals from Kazakhstan recorded an increase of 79.7 percent. Country-wise, the most number of tourists came from India at 17.7 percent, followed by Russia at 12.4 percent. The United Kingdom, Germany, and France made up 11.2 percent, 9.3 percent, and 5.7 percent respectively.

China was among the top ten countries for tourist arrivals despite the coronavirus outbreak which first surfaced in the Asian powerhouse's Wuhan city. In the January to March period of this year, Sri Lanka received a maximum number of tourists from India (18 percent), United Kingdom (11 percent), Russia (10 percent), Germany (7 percent), and China (5 percent).

The novel coronavirus has claimed seven lives and infected 622 people in Sri Lanka. The global death toll stands at 217,674 with over 3 million infections. The virus outbreak has triggered fears of a global economic slowdown, affecting almost all sectors.