COLOMBO – Tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka surpassed 90,000 in February, seeing a 14-per cent increase from the previous month, official figures from the Tourism Ministry showed here.

According to the ministry, 93,582 tourists arrived in February, leading to 175,909 tourists arriving in the country this year.

Russia continued to be the leading source market for Sri Lanka with 28,392 tourists arriving in the country to date, followed by India with 24,141, Britain 17,749, Ukraine 13,039 and Germany 12,779. In addition, tourists also came from countries such as France, Poland, Australia, Kazakhstan and the Maldives in January and February.

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.

The tourism sector 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 US dollars in tourism revenue over the last two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.