COLOMBO: Despite the Covid-19 pandemic and the Omicron variant, Sri Lanka received 82,327 tourists in January, compared to 1,682 in the same month last year, according to government data.
According to reports, figures from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) showed on Wednesday that arrivals were still much fewer than pre-pandemic levels, with 228,434 visitors registered in January 2020. In December 2021, post-pandemic arrivals peaked at 89,506 people.
Due to the issues created by the Omicron variant, Sri Lanka recently lowered its tourist arrival prediction for 2022 from 2.3 million to 1.1 million.
In 2019, tourism employed 402,607 people and provided 4.3 percent of Sri Lanka's gross domestic output. The Covid-19 outbreak has cost the country an estimated $10 billion in tourism earnings over the last two years.
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