The impact of Covid-19 outbreak on the tourism industry in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Covid-19 outbreak started in Wuhan, China, in December of 2019. The WHO declared the Covid-19 outbreak as a pandemic on 11th of March 2020. With the spread of Covid-19 all over the world, considerable number of patients were identified in Sri Lanka. The Covid-19 outbreak in Sri Lanka affected tourism industry. Tourism industry can be considered as the main path of income in Sri Lanka. The objectives of the research are identifying the impacts of Covid-19 outbreak for the tourism industry in Sri Lanka, considering about the effects on the whole economy which were caused by the tourism industry, and paying attention to the actions that are implementing by the relevant parties. All the tourist hotels in the Sri Lanka are considered as the population and five hotels selected randomly which are in Colombo district. The research is based quantitative data and those data are collected as secondary data. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software and chi square test, and Anova model are used to analyze data. With the Covid-19 outbreak, the arrivals of foreign passengers were reduced and finally the airport is closed. The government and other parties take actions and imposing new rules on the tourism industry and the tourists’ hotels are implementing some relevant actions to reconstruction of the tourism industry. According to the research, the Covid-19 affect to tourism industry badly and thereby the main income source of Sri Lanka has collapsed. Finally, according to the research it can be concluded that Sri Lankan tourism industry has faced large losses with the effects of Covid-19, and it can be reconstructed by implementing relevant actions.