By Nishel Fernando 
The total employment in the tourism sector, including indirect employment, rose by 11.24 percent year-on-year (YoY) to 429,641 employees in 2023, according to the provisional data of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA).
In the year, direct employment in the tourism sector rose by 7.3 percent YoY, reaching an all-time high of 204,591 employees, with hotels and restaurants accounting for 80.9 percent of this figure. In addition, the travel agents and tour operators accounted for 7.4 percent of employment, while the airline industry employed 4.2 percent of the workforce. Tourist guides made up 3.6 percent and the public sector employed 1.1 percent. This data is based on a survey conducted by the SLTDA, covering 6,569 tourism establishments in the country. “These figures highlight the significant role of hotels and restaurants in providing employment within the tourism sector, reflecting the industry’s reliance on hospitality services. The smaller percentages for travel agents, tour operators, airlines, guides and the state sector suggest that while these areas are vital, they employ a smaller portion of the workforce. This distribution underscores the importance of the hospitality segment in driving employment opportunities within tourism,” the SLTDA said. 

In 2023, the annual room occupancy rate (graded) rose to 39 percent, compared to 30.4 percent recorded in 2022. However, this figure remained below the pre-pandemic and pre-crisis levels when the country recorded a mid-70 percent annual room occupancy level. At the same time, the room stock (graded) rose to 26,422 rooms in 2023, from 25,597 rooms recorded in 2022.
Furthermore, there was a decline in the average duration (nights) stay of tourists, which fell to 8.4 nights, from nine nights on average a year earlier.  The receipt per tourist per day (US dollars) remained unchanged at US $ 164.4 in the year, below the pre-pandemic level of US $ 181.2 per tourist per day (2019).
Meanwhile, the indirect employments generated by tourist spending in ancillary industries such as handicrafts, the gem and jewellery sectors and others rose by 14.98 percent YoY to 225,050 in 2023, marking a near full recovery to pre-pandemic levels of 229,015 recorded in 2019. These figures are based on the estimates.