Airport closure, dip in Chinese arrivals snap tourism growth for first time since 2009

Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka edged down 0.1 percent year-on-year (YoY) in February to 197, 517 amid the partial closure of the country’s main airport and a significant drop in Chinese arrivals, the data released by the country’s tourism office showed.
This ended a 93-month streak of YoY tourist increases to the country, since the end of the 30-year long war in May 2009. However the tourist arrivals in the first two months of 2017 rose 6.4 percent to 416, 877 tourists.
Notably arrivals from East Asia led by China fell 11.1 percent YoY to 41, 460 as Chinese arrivals fell 21.6 percent YoY to 25, 248 despite the Chinese New Year, where Chinese tend to engage in international travel.
Tourist arrivals from Western Europe led by UK, Germany and France rose 4.4 percent Yoy to 76, 770, although arrivals from France saw 4.7 percent decline to 13, 909.
Tourists from Eastern Europe increased 9.3 percent YoY to 23, 768 with arrivals from Russia rising 29.8 percent YoY to 9, 301. The number of Middle Eastern tourists visiting Sri Lanka also rose 12.9 percent YoY to 5,530 with higher tourist arrivals from Saudi Arabia, Oman and Israel.
Tourist arrivals from South Asia however dropped 2.9 percent YoY  to 35, 148 with arrivals from India and Maldives decreasing to 0.9 percent to 26, 320 and 11.7 percent to 5, 103, respectively.
Arrivals from North America and Australasia also saw slight increases during February. 

Tourist arrivals and revenue from tourism hit record highs in 2016, with annual arrivals jumping 14 percent to a record 2.05 million.
Revenue in 2016 hit US $3.4 billion, beating the previous record of US $2.98 billion posted in 2015, the data by the country’s Central Bank showed. 
The Bandaranaike International Airport is scheduled to fully open this April. The airport is closed eight hours during the day time for runway renovations.