February saw the highest number of visitors per month in two years with the number of tourists who arrived in the country in February reported as 96,507.
Minister of Tourism Prasanna Ranatunga said it is the highest number of tourists that have visited the country since March 2020. The number of tourists who arrived in the month of January was 82,327 and Sri Lanka received 178,834 tourists in the last two months .
The number of tourists who arrived in the country in 2021 was 194,495. The number of tourists who visited the country daily during the first five days of February exceeded 4,000.
Most tourists arrived from Russia, with a total of 28,818. Further 24,495 Indian tourists,18,084 tourists from the UK, 13,119 from Germany, and 13,062 from Ukraine arrived in Sri Lanka.
The Minister also said that there has been a gradual increase in the number of tourists visiting the country since last September.
The number of such arrivals was 13,547 in September, 22,771 in October, 44,294 in November, and 89,506 in December.
Meanwhile, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is to be signed between Emirates and the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) to promote Sri Lanka as an attractive tourist destination.
The MoU will be signed by both parties at the Emirates headquarters tomorrow (4), Ranatunga said. Under the MoU, which aims to promote the tourism industry in Sri Lanka, Emirates and the SLTPB will launch a joint promotion programme.
It is expected to organise tours to familiarise Sri Lanka with representatives of travel organisations and journalists. This agreement is signed for a period of one year. The MoU will be updated and extended after the end of the year, the Minister noted.
