Tourism earnings reach US$ 2.35bn

• Arrivals were on its way to recover to its pre-pandemic levels
• A strong year-end season expected to take industry to its targets set for year end

Sri Lanka is seeing continuous headway in its tourism trade through September as both the arrivals and earnings made progress in the months, although there was some easing from a month ago.

The latest data available showed that Sri Lanka has earned US$ 181.0 million from the tourism trade in September 2024, up from US$ 152.2 million generated in the same months last year when the arrivals were on its way to recover to its pre-pandemic levels.

However, what the country generated in September was at least US$ 100 million lower from a month ago in August as arrivals slowed. This brought the cumulative nine months earnings from the trade to US$ 2,348.0 million, up by 61.2 percent from what the trade earned in the same period in 2023.

In September, Sri Lanka welcomed 122,140 visitors compared to 111,938 a year ago but down notably from the 164, 609 in August.

This however brought the total arrivals to the country in the first nine months to a little under 1.5 million, higher than 1,016,256 in the same period in 2023 and nearly the same number of arrivals seen for the entire 2023.

Sri Lanka aims at welcoming over 2.0 million visitors in 2024, generating between US$ 3.0 to US$ 3.5 billion for the entire year.

A really strong year-end season should take the industry to its targets by the end of the year.

Recovery in earnings from the tourism trade and remittances amid notably resilient earnings from exports helped the country to regain its footing it lost in the external sector and thereby the entire economy.

Sri Lanka ran out of foreign currency in early 2022, making it even impossible to pay for its basics such as energy, medicinal drugs and some food as the aforementioned inflows ran dry, first due to the pandemic and then due to the misinformation about dollars being stashed away, and then by the soared energy and other global commodities prices which required more dollars to pay for them.

The new government, since coming into power has restored the old visa system, adhering to a court order issued about two months ago, which could make the system easy for those who want to travel to Sri Lanka.

The new system which has been implemented this April has caused a lot of challenges for those obtaining visas and has also cost nearly double the amount before, sparking concerns about the tourism industry which brings crucial dollar incomes for the country to import fuel, medicine and food.