COLOMBO, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka earned 169.9 million U.S. dollars from tourism in February, the country's tourism minister said on Monday.
Tourism Minister Harin Fernando told the media that the figure represented an increase from the 169.4 million dollars a year earlier.
Over 210,000 tourists arrived in Sri Lanka in the first two months of 2023, and 331.7 million dollars were earned in the cited period, according to him.
The South Asian country recorded 102,545 visitor arrivals in January and 107,639 in February.
The cumulative number of visitor arrivals for the year until March 8 was 234,547, an increase of 9.6 percent from the same period of last year, said the tourism minister.
Russia, India and Germany were Sri Lanka's top three source markets of tourists so far in March, according to the Tourism Development Authority data.
Tourism, one of Sri Lanka's leading foreign exchange earners, has suffered a setback due to the COVID-19 pandemic and domestic economic and political crises.
Sri Lanka aims to attract around 1.5 million tourists in 2023 and 3 million in 2024. ■
