Tourist arrivals stage slight recovery in June thanks to Aussie cricket fans

• Arrivals up by 2,649 from May
• India tops as largest source market, followed by UK and Australia
• Arrivals for first six months cross 400,000 mark
• 51% of revised tourist arrival target for 2020 realised  

Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka for the month of June totalled 32,856, recording a marginal increase when compared with the previous month. 

When compared with the arrival figure of 30,207 recorded in May, which is the lowest number since the impressive kick-start in January, the June arrivals indicate a slight improvement in destination Sri Lanka, despite the ongoing crisis. 

The data shared by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) showed that the improvement in arrivals was due to the increased arrivals from Australia. 

The Sri Lanka versus Australia T20 and ODI cricket match series was held in the island nation last month, while the test match series is currently underway.  

India emerged as the largest tourist traffic generator for Sri Lanka in June with 6,650 arrivals from that country. The United Kingdom, with 3,199, emerged as the second largest source market. The hype created by the ongoing cricket match pulled Australia up to the third position, accounting to 2,448 tourist arrivals. 

The average daily arrivals for the month of June stood at 1,095. Since the beginning of the year, until the economic crisis spiralled out of control in the month of April, the island nation’s daily tourist arrivals were in the ranges of 2500 to 3000. 

In the month of March, which saw the highest number of arrivals (106,500) since the outbreak of the pandemic, the daily average arrival was 3,435. 

The cumulative analysis of the data shared by the SLTDA showed that the tourist arrivals for the first six months of the year ending in June crossed the 400,000 mark.  

In the January 01 to June 30, 2022 period, a total of 411,377 tourists have visited the country. 

Here again, India topped the list as the largest source market, bringing in 69,103 visitors. The UK ranked second, accounting for 49,996 tourists and the Russian Federation ranked as the third largest source market, accounting for 46,496 of the total tourists for the year so far. 

Sri Lanka aims to lure in 800,000 tourists by the end of 2022 and to generate an income of about US $ 800 million.
Initially, the Tourism Ministry announced its plans to attract 2.3 million tourists and generate an income of about US $ 4.5 billion. 

Based on the revised tourist arrival target, Sri Lanka has realised 51 percent of its target for the year 2022.