“In Sri Lanka, the combination of falling tourism, manufacturing activity and services associated with the pandemic is envisaged to cause output to contract by 3.2 percent, despite the earlier recovery from the April 2019 terrorist attacks,” the World Bank said in the latest edition of the Global Economic Prospect.
The World Bank specifically stated that the impact on the tourism industry would create a challenging path for certain South Asian economies such as Sri Lanka, for their recovery.
“Tourism activity was on a path to recovery but became severely damaged by the pandemic. This includes sharp declines in tourist arrivals in economies like Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and especially Maldives, where tourism directly and indirectly accounts for more than two-thirds of GDP.”
“This includes a decline in arrivals from China, a key market, since early in the year. International travel bans and other restrictions adopted by regional economies (e.g., airport closure for arrivals in Sri Lanka) have further contributed to the weakness in tourism,” The World Bank said.
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