He said that lower to medium spending tourists arrived in Sri Lanka from markets such as Russia and India in 2023 which took the top two tourist arrival countries in the year that resulted in lower revenue compared to years such as 2018 and 2019.

Sri Lanka had a total tourist arrival of 1.48 million in 2023 generating US$ 2 billion while in years such as 2019, it generated $ 3.5 billion with over 1.9 million arrivals.

India took the top spot with the highest tourist arrivals in 2023, with 302,844 while Russia the second place with 197,498. In 2019, the second and third places were taken up by markets such as the United Kingdom (UK) and China