Sri Lanka’s Tourism Minister Harin Fernando announced on Monday that Sri Lanka earned $169.9 million in tourism revenue in February, exceeding last year’s earnings of $169.4 million.
Fernando added that the number of tourists visiting Sri Lanka in the first two months of 2023 surpassed 210,000, with 102,545 tourists in January and 107,639 tourists in February, contributing to a total revenue of $331.7 million.
As of March 8, the cumulative number of tourists visiting Sri Lanka in 2023 had reached 234,547, marking a 9.6 percent increase from the same period last year, with Russia, India, and Germany being the top three tourist markets.
The tourism industry, considered one of Sri Lanka’s primary sources of foreign currency income, suffered a significant decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as domestic economic and political crises.
In an effort to recover, Sri Lanka aims to attract around 1.5 million tourists in 2023 and 3 million tourists in 2024.