Sri Lanka’s June tourist arrival rate remains slow

The rate of tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka continues to remain slow in the month of June, which is an off-season of the island nation.

The provisional data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) showed that for the first 23 days of June, Sri Lanka welcomed only 84,383 international visitors. The daily arrival average is about 3,500 while the weekly arrival average is about 26,000. 

Accordingly, the year-to-date tourist arrivals are at 981,162. 

Analysis shows that compared with the number of tourists visiting the country in June 2023, the June 2024 arrivals thus far are a slight increase of 16 percent. In the first 23 days of June 2023, Sri Lanka welcomed 72,277 international visitors. 

For June so far, India ranks as the largest tourist traffic generator, a position it continues to hold. 
The United Kingdom ranks as the second largest source market for Sri Lanka tourism, while the Russian Federation ranks as the third. 

Australia and China rank as the fourth and fifth largest tourist traffic generators for Sri Lanka. 

Meanwhile, the data from the SLTDA showed that Sri Lanka is now luring Maldivians for tourism purposes. While the Maldives has not been among the top source markets for Sri Lanka tourism, since May, the nation has made an entry to the list. 

In May, the Maldives ranked as the third largest tourist traffic generator for Sri Lanka, accounting for about 7 percent of the total arrivals. In June, so far, the Maldives ranks in the eighth position. 

It is unclear if the Maldives’ sudden entry to the top 10 source markets for Sri Lanka tourism is due to the change in the visa categorisation that came into effect recently.