Tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka drop by nearly 20% YOY after Easter terror attacks
Sri Lanka saw a drop in the number of tourist arrivals in 2019 as a consequence of the terror attacks earlier last year. In the first eleven months of the year, tourist arrivals decreased by 19.6%, according to the latest reports from Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority.
The terror attacks took place on Easter Sunday, April 21st. In May, tourist arrivals plunged to a third compared to the same month in 2018. The numbers started rising again in June, as per usual seasonal trends, but at a slower pace which left the tourism industry performing well below expectations. The gap began to shrink in August and almost closed in November when tourist arrivals were only 18.5 thousand visitors short of the previous year’s numbers.
Despite the attempts of Sri Lanka’s National Tourism Board, travel agencies and local business owners whose livelihood depends on tourism, Sri Lanka lost 408,588 visitors in the first 11 months of the year. Still, its future prospects may be looking up.
On top of the latest monthly report numbers almost up to par with recent years, on January 1st CNN Travel listed Sri Lanka as one of the 20 best places to visit in 2020, and one day later, Sri Lanka’s Tourism Minister confirmed to the Daily FT that its gratis visa scheme for 49 countries, in place since August 2019, would be extended until April 2020, that is until the end of high season in the popular Western and Southern provinces.
The Easter Sunday bombings targeted churches in different parts of Sri Lanka — Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa — during Easter services and several luxury hotels in the capital, known to host foreign visitors as well as Sri Lankan families celebrating the holiday. All suicide bombers were Sri Lankan citizens and the attacks were later linked to a local militant Islamist group.
Written for my Data Journalism class at City, University in London in January 2020, as part of the Erasmus Mundus MA in Journalism, Media and Globalisation.
