OREANDA-NEWS Russian tourists are of great importance to the Sri Lankan economy, as they make up 13% of the total number of tourists. This was told to the TASS correspondent by the Russian Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives Levan Jagaryan.

"The flow of tourists from Russia is really important for the Sri Lankan economy. For clarity, a few statistics. In 2023, the country's budget revenues from the tourism sector amounted to $2.1 billion, 1.48 million vacationers visited the island, about 13% of them, about 200 thousand are Russians. In January - February of this year alone, 60 thousand of our citizens visited Sri Lanka," Jagaryan said, adding that Russian citizens consistently hold the first positions in terms of the number of tourists on the island.

"Let me remind you that in early June 2022, at the request of the Irish leasing company, the Lankan authorities temporarily arrested an Aeroflot aircraft. At that time, direct flights from Russia were discontinued until October 2022, which dealt a significant blow to the Sri Lankan tourism industry. By the way, this decision was treated ambiguously inside the country, and the official who made it was even brought to justice," the Russian ambassador noted.