The tourist arrivals to the island nation crossed the 100,000 mark within the first 17 days of the month, the provisional data from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) showed.

Sri Lanka welcomed a total of 103,315 international visitors from November 01 to 17, which is a 21 percent increase when compared with the corresponding period of the previous year. 

Accordingly, the daily average reached 6,077 arrivals, up from 5,005 arrivals a year ago and 4,189 arrivals a month ago. 

The tourist arrivals rose 24.95 percent year-on-year to 135,907 in October, rebounding from September’s slowdown, which saw a growth drop to single digits for the first time this year, despite the travel advisories. However, the United States, Israel and several other countries withdrew the travel warnings of potential terrorist threats, targeting the popular surfing destination Arugam Bay, in recent days.

If the current arrival trend prevails, Sri Lanka could welcome approximately 182,310 tourists during this month, nearly achieving the conservative arrival projection of 182,693 tourists set for the month. In an optimistic scenario, the SLTDA projects 198,069 tourist arrivals for the month.

In the month, India remained the top source market, with 23,660 arrivals. Russia remained in the second spot, with 16,602 arrivals, followed by Germany, with 7,776, while the UK fell to the fourth spot, with 6,611 arrivals.  Australia, China, France, Poland, the Maldives and Netherlands were among the top 10 source markets.

The cumulative arrivals for the year have now exceeded 1.72 million, with India leading at 346,633 arrivals, followed by Russia (154,201) and the UK (153,281).

Analysts expect the tourist arrivals to reach 2-2.1 million by year-end, below the original target of 2.3 million. (NF)