Sri Lanka plans to triple Russian tourist flow in 2023

According to the calculations of the tourism administration of Sri Lanka, about 280 thousand tourists from the Russian Federation can visit this country by the end of 2023.

Representatives of Sri Lanka stated that now the country is experiencing an active growth of the number of tourists, a significant proportion of which are Russian citizens.

Last year Sri Lanka was visited by 725 000 tourists. Of these, Russians accounted for 12,6% - 91 272 people.

From the beginning of January 2023 to the present time, 57,1 thousand Russian tourists have visited the country. In the second place are tourists from India (34 thousand), in the third - from the UK (20 thousand).

It is planned that in 2023 1,55 million tourists will visit Sri Lanka. At the same time, the Russians, according to the forecast of the Bureau for Tourism Development of this country, will make up about 18% of this number - that is, about 280 thousand tourists. This is three times more than in 2022.

“Russia is the leader in the number of tourists in Sri Lanka. And we do not want to stop at this level, we want to increase these numbers,” said Chalaka Gajabahu, chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Bureau.

Currently, three airlines operate direct flights to the country - Aeroflot, Azur air and Red Wings. In the summer, more than four flights a week are planned to be operated between Russia and Sri Lanka. The aviation authorities of the two countries recently agreed to increase the number of flights on the Moscow-Colombo route from 14 to 21 per week.

As for charters, tour operators have already announced the extension of part of their flight programs to Sri Lanka for the summer. Tourists will be transported to the east coast of the island, where climate and swimming conditions are most comfortable in summer.