November tourism earnings jump to US$ 273 mn on solid winter season arrivals

Tourism earnings in November 2024 recorded US$ 272.9 million, rising sharply from US$ 205.3 million in the same month a year ago and US$ 185.6 million generated in October due to a solid winter arrivals season.

In November, Sri Lanka welcomed 184,158 tourists, rising from 151,496  in October, bringing the first eleven months arrivals to 1,804,873, setting the country up for two million arrivals for the year after the sector was beset by repeated crises from Easter attacks to the pandemic to the economic crisis.

The November earnings from tourism brought the cumulative earnings from the trade to US$ 2,806.5 million for the eleven months, which translates into a robust 56.0 percent increase from the same period last year.

Sri Lanka could end up with a full year earnings of slightly above US$ 3.0 billion which is within the US$ 3.0 to US$ 3.5 billion anticipated to be earned from the trade for 2024 as the industry recovered to its pre-pandemic level of arrivals at the start of this year.

Sri Lanka has continuously featured among the top most preferred destinations to travel in 2025 by global publications, setting up the country for an even better year for both arrivals and earnings, which would most likely surpass the previous highs reached in 2018.

Early estimates show that Sri Lanka expects to earn more than US$ 5.0 billion next year from tourism, which doesn’t seem unlikely.  

The brief travel advisories by some countries led by the United States imposed in response to a terrorism scare in the East Coast appear to have done nothing to dent the appeal for the country.

The recent financial performance by leisure sector companies also showed that they have made substantial top and bottom-line gains on the back of the higher arrivals.

The resorts are also patronised heavily by domestic travellers who are now spending increasingly on travelling and other recreational activities as general prices are coming down while the mood has also shifted positively due to change in politics in the two back-to-back elections in September and November.

The fixing of the visa issuance system too appears to have helped to avoid delays and unnecessary costs in the process, further making the process easy for the traveller.