More than a quarter of foreign tourists who visited Sri Lanka in February 2023 came from Russia and became leaders among the tourist markets in a tropical country. Such data was published by the Colombo Gazette.
According to Airport and Aviation Services, 29,084 tourists arrived in Sri Lanka from Russia in February – these are not only short-term tourists as part of organized tours, but also wintering tourists. For comparison: in January, when the Russians were also the most numerous in the island state, the number of our compatriots amounted to more than 25.2 thousand.
The second place after the Russian Federation was taken by India, where 13.714 (13%) travelers came from. The UK closed the top three (8.575 thousand or 8% of the total tourist flow). It was followed by Germany (7.930 people or 7%) and France (6.118 people or 6% thousand). This is what the top five markets for Sri Lanka looked like in February.
At the same time, Sri Lanka's tourism sector registered 107,639 foreign arrivals in February 2023, up 11.5% from February 2022. Mahinda Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) received 11,926 foreign travelers (6,259 arrivals and 5,667 departures) in February 2023 with over 72 international flights.
A total of 602 foreign tourists arrived on the island on March 6: 414 people – by the Russian airline Red Wings Airlines and 188 people – by the Kazakh airline SCAT Airlines, and for the latter carrier this was the first flight to Sri Lanka after the “covid” break. The top ten also included Australia, Canada, the USA, Israel.
According to the Tourism Development Authority of Sri Lanka, the total number of tourists to the island during 26 days of February amounted to more than 100 thousand people. Thus, both January and February arrivals this year turned out to be 25% higher for the resort country than for the same period last year.
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