Sri Lank tourism arrivals hit by corona-virus, arrivals fell 6.5 percent in Jan from year earlier

Tourist arrivals fell by 6.5% in Jan 2020 compared with Jan 2019. The number of Indian arrivals up by 3.5%, but Chinese arrivals fell by 15.3%, UK fell by 18.8% , Russian up 45.6%, Germany fell by 18.1%, French fell by 21.4%. Total tourist arrival fell by 4.5% in 2019 after hit by an Islamic terrorist attack in April 2019. Since then the arrivals were recovering till December. Today, tourism is a huge global business that accounts for 10.4% of global GDP and 10% of global employment. Oxford Economics is now forecasting that the U.S. will experience a loss of 1.6 million visitors from mainland China this year. The Chinese are also the biggest spenders, on average shelling out $6,500, compared to the $4,000 spent by other foreign tourists in the U.S. Thailand, which saw 10.5 million Chinese tourists in 2018. Spending by tourists in Thailand is equivalent to roughly 11% of the country’s GDP. Other countries in Asia that are highly dependent on tourist spend include Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia.