Sri Lanka’s tourism officials eyes direct air connectivity for tourism recovery as the Island destination attracted 22,771 tourists in October indicating modest improvement owing to factors such as vaccination advances around the world, softer restrictions for vaccinated travellers, use of digital tools to facilitate safe travel
India, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, Russia and Germany were Sri Lanka’s top five international tourist generating markets for the month of October this year. India was the largest source of tourist visits to Sri Lanka with 37% of the total traffic received in October. The United Kingdom and Pakistan accounted for 10% and 9% of the total traffic respectively.
93.7% of Indians have used Sri Lankan Airlines in travelling to Sri Lanka, likely driven by the air ticket promotion offered to Indian tourists, according to Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA).
Sri Lankan Airlines also contributed 73.1 percent, 65.1 percent and 46.4 percent arrivals from Pakistan, Russia and the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, Qatar Airlines was responsible for bringing the majority of tourists from Germany, France and the United States.
“Establishing direct air access especially to Europe is key to increase tourism and in identifying this, steps are underway to launch direct flights with several airlines such as Aeroflot, Azur Air, Neos, Air France, US-Bangla, Arkia and Swiss Air, commencing from November. It is anticipated that the resumption of flights by Sri Lankan Airlines to Paris from
November will further boost the visitation of tourists mainly from European Region,” SLTDA said.