Tourist arrivals surpass 1.9 mn mark

Sri Lanka surpassed 1.9 million tourist arrivals for the year, provisional data from Sri Lanka Tourism Authority (SLTDA) showed.  During the first half of December alone, the country welcomed 97,115 visitors, averaging approximately 6,474 arrivals per day—an improvement from the 6,138 daily arrivals recorded in November.

Based on current trends, Sri Lanka is projected to welcome between 193,471 and 229,644 tourists in December. However, this remains below SLTDA’s initial projections, which estimated 236,485 arrivals under a conservative scenario and 256,389 under an optimistic one.

India continued to dominate as Sri Lanka’s top source market, contributing 21,174 arrivals during the first half of December. Russia followed with 13,762 visitors, while the United Kingdom and Germany secured third and fourth places with 7,417 and 6,574 arrivals, respectively. Australia rounded out the top five with 5,198 arrivals. Other notable source markets included China, the United States, Poland, France, and Bangladesh. In terms of cumulative arrivals for 2023, India led with 385,267 tourists, followed by Russia with 180,414, and the United Kingdom with 166,999. The SLTDA anticipates welcoming 2.1 million tourists in 2024, generating US$3 billion in revenue by the end of this year.

Initially, the country had set a target of 2.3 million tourist arrivals. However, issues with on-arrival visas, which persisted for several months, disrupted the inflow of tourists, impacting the achievement of these targets to a certain extent. (NF)