Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka has remained higher in the last eight days of October compared to last year, the official government data showed, despite the U.S. Embassy in Colombo and six other foreign missions issued travel advisories over a potential attack on a tourism hot spot in the island nation’s Eastern coast of Arugam Bay.
Foreign visitors to the country recorded a 35 percent gain in the last eight days of October this year to 37,287, compared to 27,649 in the same time period in 2023, the state-run Tourism Research and Statistics website showed.
On October 23, the United States embassy asked its nationals to avoid Arugam Bay, a popular tourist destination, saying there is credible information of an attack. Later, Australia, Israel, Russia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United Kingdom followed the suit.
Sri Lanka Police tightened security in Arugam Bay, a popular destination for surfing where a higher number of Israeli tourists visit soon after the intelligence arm received the information on a possible attack.
Cabinet Spokesman Vijitha Herath this week said the police are still investigating if the attack information was a false alarm amid concerns raised by tourism industry stakeholders over a possible cancellation in the number of foreign visitors ahead of the peak tourism season starting later this month.
Hearth said tourists have been continuing to visit the island nation as the government has taken appropriate actions.
Tourist arrivals in October also showed a 25 percent rise to 135,907 compared to 109,199 in the same month last year. However, that increasing rate is below the year-to-date growth rate of 44 percent in the first 10 months of this year
The tourism industry was then hit by Easter Sunday suicide bombing in April 2019 followed by Covid pandemic in 2020 and an unprecedented economic crisis in 2022 which forced the country to declare sovereign debt default.
