Sri Lanka records 82,327 tourist arrivals in Jan

Colombo, Feb 3 Sri Lanka received 82,327 tourists in January compared to 1,682 arrivals in the same month last year, , despite challenges from the Covid-19 pandemic and the Omicron variant, official data revealed.

The data from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) showed on Wednesday that arrivals were however, still significantly lower than pre-pandemic levels where 228,434 arrivals were recorded in January 2020, reports Xinhua news agency.

Post-pandemic arrivals peaked at 89,506 in December 2021.

Sri Lanka recently revised its tourist arrival forecast for 2022 down from 2.3 million to 1.1 million due to challenges posed by the Omicron variant.

Tourism contributed to 4.3 per cent of Sri Lanka's gross domestic product and employed 402,607 people in 2019.

The country has lost an estimated $10 billion in tourism revenue over the last two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.