Colombo:Driven by Sri Lanka’s growing appeal as a low-cost tourist destination, following the steep depreciation of the rupee, the tourism industry is expected to make a swift and steady recovery in this winter season, with tourist arrivals surpassing pre-crisis levels in 2024.
“Considering the near-term arrival growth, a swift recovery in the tourism industry operations is expected during the winter season (from December 2022), as the steep currency depreciation has better positioned Sri Lanka as a low-cost tourist destination,” CT CLSA Securities said in a report on the tourism industry.
“Also, we believe that a steady recovery can be sustained over the course of 2023 and 2024, which would support the business segment to remain consistently profitable as seen before 2019,” the Daily Mirror quoted it as saying.
Accordingly, the projected tourist arrivals are expected to double to 0.7 million arrivals this year and to 1.8 million arrivals next year while reaching the pre-crisis level of 2.4 million arrivals in 2024.
Correspondingly, the leading stockbroking firm projected the country’s tourism earnings to double to $1.3 billion at the end of this year, with earnings to double to $3.5 billion and $4.6 billion in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
It highlighted that the recent depreciation of the rupee is enabling the country to attract tourists from new source markets along with increased numbers from the existing ones while the country continues to remain attractive as a tourist destination, given the unique and distinctive set of offerings.
According to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), the tourist arrivals reached 644,186, as of December 7. At the same time, tourism earnings surpassed the $1 billion mark for the first time by the end of November since 2019.
