Sri Lanka, July 7 -- Earnings from the tourism trade, Sri Lanka's second largest foreign currency income after worker remittances, took nearly a 50 percent plunge during the first six months to June, as all forms of cross-border travel were suspended from mid-March since fears of foreign visitors could carry the deadly virus traced back to China.
Sri Lanka earned US $ 956.2 million from the tourism trade in the first six months of 2020, compared to US $ 1.9 billion earned in the corresponding six months in 2019-a figure which was also seriously damaged by the Easter Sunday attacks, as the arrivals nosedived by as much as 70 percent in May 2019, before making some gradual recovery.
The decline corresponded with the plunge in arrivals to 50...