COLOMBO, March 6 (Xinhua) — Sri Lanka’s Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) provided service to over 11,000 tourists in February, the Airport and Aviation Services of Sri Lanka (AASL) announced on Monday.
The airport located in the southern town of Mattala handled 6,259 visitor arrivals and 5,667 departures in February, said the AASL.
On Monday, the MRIA received 602 international tourists, who arrived on flights of Kazakhstan-based SCAT Airlines and Russia’s Red Wings Airlines, said the AASL, adding that this year would be one of the best recovery years for Sri Lanka’s tourism.
A total of 107,639 international tourists arrived in Sri Lanka in February, an increase of 11.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the tourism authority.
Tourism, one of Sri Lanka’s leading foreign exchange earners, has suffered a setback due to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic and political crises in the country.
The South Asian country aims to attract around 1.5 million tourists in 2023 and 3 million in 2024. ■