Sri Lanka is expected to see a drop in tourist arrivals from Russia, as Russian national carrier Aeroflot has halted international flights due to the ongoing conflict with Ukraine.
Aeroflot on Saturday (05) announced that it will be halting all international flights from March 08, which included flights to 146 destinations including Sri Lanka.
Russia and Ukraine were Sri Lanka’s key markets for tourists since it reopened the country for tourism in December 2020 after long Covid-19 lockdown.
One fifth of Sri Lanka’s total 268,340 tourists that visited from December to February were from Russia and Ukraine.
A total of 32, 375 tourists from Russia have visited Sri Lanka from 1st January to 7th March 2022.
The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority reported that 13,168 tourists arrived from Ukraine during this period.
Unprecedented sanctions against Russia’s banks over its invasion of Ukraine are also taking a toll on its citizens overseas, who have been left scrambling to find cash or turn to crypto transactions to get by.
