According to the results of 2019, the tourist flow from Russia to Sri Lanka increased by 34,2%, setting a historical record. Last year, the arrivals of the Russians exceeded for the first time the best pre-crisis figures of 2014. Over 70% of tourists flew to Sri Lanka with regular direct flights of Rossiya Airlines.
“Thus, the tourist flow exceeded the best pre-crisis figures of 2014, when we hosted 69,7 thousand tourists from Russia. Moreover, according to the results of 2019, Russia became the only country from the TOP-10 source markets, which showed growth. We do not want to stop at this level. And we set a new goal - to attract 100 thousand tourists from Russia in 2020,” said Mohammed Anas, Chargé d'Affaires of Sri Lanka to the Russian Federation.
It is important that this year, Rossiya airline, which has operated flights from Moscow to Colombo since the end of 2018, will continue to operate on the route.
In the high season, charter carriers operate in the destination. Also, there is an opportunity to fly to Sri Lanka by connecting flights of foreign carriers - Emirates, Etihad, Air Arabia, flydubai, etc. However, most of the Russian tourists - more than 70% of the total flow - prefer to fly to Sri Lanka by direct scheduled flights of Rossiya.
A spokesman of Rossiya Airlines Sergey Starikov provided statistics: from December 2018 to December 2019, Rossiya Airlines has operated 304 flights from Moscow to Colombo and transported more than 70 thousand passengers.
From the end of March, Rossiya will switch to the summer schedule with a frequency of 2 flights per week. And from the end of October, the frequency will again be increased to 5 flights per week.
According to travel agents, the flights of Rossiya are really very popular among tourists. Also, the flights of the carrier from Moscow are well sold to regional tourists.
