Sri Lanka reports 7.5 drop in tourist footfalls after series of bombings

Tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka tumbled 7.5 per cent in April from a year ago, as travellers shunned the island nation after the deadly Easter Sunday bombings, a senior official of the state tourism bureau said. "This is a direct impact of the attacks. There were a lot of cancellations," said Kishu Gomes, chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority told Reuters.

Foreign visitors in April fell to 166,975 compared with 180,429 in the same month a year ago, marking the single biggest monthly slump since the end of a civil war a decade ago. More than 250 people were killed, including 42 foreign nationals, when suicide bombers attacked churches and luxury hotels across the Indian Ocean Island on April 21.