Despite the island nation's borders being closed for many months due to the health crisis, 194,495 visitors arrived, with almost a quarter of them coming from India, according to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA).

India led the list with 56,268 visitors, followed by Russia (16,268) and the United Kingdom (16,646), Germany (12,442), Ukraine (7,037), France (6,549), the United States (6,124), Kazakhstan (5,754), Canada (5,079), and China (5,079), according to the SLTDA (2,417).

After two waves of Covid-19, Sri Lanka's tourism was severely harmed by the pandemic's third wave in April 2021.

However, being one of the world's top tourist attractions, Sri Lanka rapidly opened up to visitors, and a variety of promotions were developed as a result.

SriLankan Airlines started a 'Buy One, Get One Free Ticket' promotion for Indian tourists in order to attract more visitors from the neighbouring country.

The airlines also began flying to Chennai and Mumbai on a weekly basis, as well as Bengaluru, Madurai, Tiruchirappalli, Trivandrum, and Cochin.

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The government opened its borders to fully vaccinated travellers in August 2021, and the necessary on-arrival PCR testing were withdrawn the following month.

The 2019 Easter Sunday attacks targeting Christian churches and five-star hotels in April 2019, which killed almost 250 people, including foreigners, dealt a major blow to Sri Lanka's tourist sector, which is the third greatest source of foreign income.

In October 2019, the country, which was named Lonely Planet's number one travel destination, planned to welcome 2.5 million tourists, up from 2.3 million in 2018.

Roughly 2019, Sri Lanka welcomed nearly 1.9 million tourists, bringing in $3.5 billion.

As the epidemic spread, the industry took a hit in 2020, with the number of people affected dropping to 570,000.

(IANS/PR)

(keywords: Sri Lanka, Chennai, Mumbai, airlines)