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The Ongoing Crisis in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has drawn the world's attention as an island country due to its strategic geographical location in the South Asian region. The ongoing crisis in Sri Lanka is not unidimensional but a multidimensional one brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, political leadership, unsustainable debt, and energy and foreign exchange crisis.
Sri Lanka has drawn the world's attention as an island country due to its strategic geographical location in the South Asian region. The ongoing crisis in Sri Lanka is not unidimensional but a multidimensional one brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, political leadership, unsustainable debt, and energy and foreign exchange crisis.
Before 2019, the Sri Lankan economy was stable and had steady economic growth. However, the tourist-dependent Sri Lankan economy was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2018, Sri Lanka was the top tourist destination in South Asia. Thousands of tourists used to visit the island nation, with 2.3 million foreign tourists in 2018 alone. Around 13% to 14% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of Sri Lanka was from its tourism industry. Since tourism is one of the Sri Lankan economy’s major revenue sources, the restrictions on people’s movement, ban on international travel, and lockdowns adversely affected its tourism and the economic sector. Besides the pandemic, the Easter day bombings by eight suicide bombers associated with an Islamist group took the lives of 269 people, including 45 tourists, and hugely contributed to the decline of tourism in the island nation.
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