Sri Lanka, Oct. 7 -- Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka in the year of 2019 dipped to 1.9 million from 2.3 million in 2018.

This represents a fall of 18 percent. 1.5 million tourists arrived on the basis of pleasure, while 70,000 traveled on the basis of business, and 251,000 travelled for other purposes.

These figures were made public in the Tourism Ministry Annual Performance Report and Accounts submitted to Parliament recently.

The room occupancy rate dipped from 70% to 57% levels in 2019. The sector is directly estimated to employ 173,592 people and to generate 225,273 positions of indirect employment.

Tourism revenue is estimated to be US$ 3.6 billion in 2019 which is lower than the US$ 4.3 billion in 2018 and the US$ 3.9 billion in 2...