- So far only 800 attracted, says SLTDA
- Over 47,000 tourists visit in first 15 days of 2023
Sri Lanka expects to record 240,000 tourist arrivals from China in 2023 despite fears of a new Covid-19 strain in China, and expects Chinese tourist numbers to pick up after February, following the Chinese New Year, stated Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) Chairperson Priantha Fernando.
Speaking to The Morning Business, he said that China is expected to generate a total of 200 million outbound tourists globally, and that the SLTDA is confident of achieving the 240,000 target for Chinese tourist arrivals in 2023 despite the Covid outbreak in China.
According to the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute, Chinese travellers are projected to take 110 million international trips in 2023, two-thirds of the levels seen in 2019.
China is among the top three markets for Sri Lanka Tourism and in 2019, 167,863 Chinese tourist arrivals were recorded in Sri Lanka, which was the last time Sri Lanka saw a full year of Chinese arrivals before the pandemic.
Moreover, Fernando said that in the first 15 days of January 2023, 47,353 tourist arrivals have been recorded, with the most arrivals recorded from Russia (12,064 arrivals), followed by India (5,838), Germany (3,945), and the UK (3,860). The number of Chinese tourist arrivals was below 800 and China is not among the top 10 countries.
“We were expecting the Chinese tourist arrivals to pick up after February, following the Chinese New Year,” he added.
Last week, Sri Lanka made it mandatory for all inbound tourists to possess a vaccination card, or submit a PCR report taken 72 hours prior to arrival for unvaccinated tourists.