Tourist arrivals continue to dip

• March second week records 17, 699 tourist arrivals
• Daily arrival average slows to 2, 578

Tourist arrivals to the island nation continue to slow down with the number of weekly international travellers entering Sri Lanka dropping further. According to provisional data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), the second week of May welcomed a total of 17,699 visitors, which are the lowest weekly arrivals recorded so far for this year.

A brief analysis of tourist arrivals of previous years (pre-Covid and Easter Sunday attack) showed that May typically records the lowest influx of international visitors in a calendar year. In the first week of May, Sri Lanka welcomed 18, 401 visitors, which was a significant drop when compared with the 31,719 arrivals recorded in the fourth week of April.

With Sri Lanka recording 36,100 tourist arrivals for the May 1-14 period, the daily arrival average for the month is at 2,578, which again is significantly lower compared with the daily arrival average level of 3,200 - 4,500 in the first four months of the year.

India topped the list as the largest source market accounting for 26 percent or 9,323 of the total arrivals in the week under review. 

Ranking second was the Russian Federation, which accounted for 10 percent or 3,686 of the total arrivals. In third place was the United Kingdom accounting for 7 percent or 2,523 arrivals. 

Other key markets included Germany, Australia, China, and Canada.