Tourist arrivals top 30,000 in first three weeks of August

The tourist arrivals to the country for the first three weeks of August have crossed the 30,000 mark. 

The provisional data from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority showed that for the August 01-23 period, a total of 31,105 international visitors entered the country. 

This brings the total arrivals from January 01 to August 23 to 489,775. The average tourist arrivals per day for the month so far is about 1,350.  

Analysis of the weekly arrival trend for August shows that the highest number of tourists visited the country in the first week of the month (August 01-07). The following weeks showed a declining trend. 

The week-by-week tourist arrivals for August showed a contraction in numbers when compared with the 
previous month.

The total arrivals for all the four weeks of July were above 10,000, with the fourth week recording arrivals of above 15,000. However, for the month of August, which is still the summer season, arrivals have been below 10,000 from the second week onwards.

It is likely total tourist arrivals for August will be below that of July, which was 47,293. 

The top three source markets for Sri Lanka for the month of August were the United Kingdom, India and Germany. Arrivals from the UK for August 10-23 stood at 5,872, whereas from India and Germany, a total of 4,262 and 2,779 international visitors entered the country.