Sri Lanka lowers tourism arrival targets for 2020 following COVID-19 outbreak

Sri Lanka's Tourism Ministry, on Wednesday said it had decided to revise tourism arrivals and earnings forecast for 2020 following the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and the two week suspension of arrival flights at the Bandaranaike International Airport.

Sri Lanka Tourism Chairperson Kimarli Fernando told the media that the tourism sector was currently one of the hardest hit by the outbreak of COVID-19 in the island country and considering the evolving nature of the situation, it was too early to fully estimate the impact of COVID-19 on earnings and arrivals, but clearly there would be a negative impact.

"The COVID-19 outbreak has decimated many top source markets of Sri Lanka, but for us the timing of the plunge is particularly unfortunate as the industry was on its path to recovery from the Easter Sunday terror attacks last year," Fernando said.

"Originally 2020 was supposed to be a big year for Sri Lanka, as we had planned for a significant surge in visitor traffic. However, the ambitious plans of Sri Lanka Tourism for 2020 are now under the threat of the COVID-19 crisis," she added.

Prior to the emergence of COVID-19, Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga in January said the target of tourist arrivals for 2020 was 3.5 to 4 million tourists and 5 billion U.S. dollar in earnings.

As a direct result of COVID-19, tourist arrivals in February declined by 17 percent to 207,507. Cumulative tourist arrivals over the first two months of the year fell 12 percent to 435,941, the ministry said.