July tourist arrivals up 6 %

Buoyed by higher tourist arrivals from India and Europe, Sri Lanka’s total tourist arrivals during the month of July rose 6 percent year-on-year (YoY) to 205,482 the data released by the country’s tourism office showed.

Europe was the largest source of tourist traffic to Sri Lanka with 44 percent of the total traffic received in July 2018.   

Asia and Pacific accounted for 42 percent of the total traffic, Middle East 7 percent, America 6 percent and Africa 0.5 percent.

India continued to be the biggest source market for Sri Lanka accounting for 14 percent of the total traffic during July. The number of Indian tourists visited Sri Lanka during the July rose 7 percent YoY to 31, 032.

China, which was the second largest source market, accounted to 13 percent of the total traffic. However, Chinese arrivals during July fell 3.5 percent YoY to 27, 460.
Arrivals from United Kingdom rose 6.9 percent YoY to 25,186 and the UK accounted for 12 percent of the total traffic during July.

As per regions, visitors from Americas, mainly Canada and the United States, rose 21.4 percent YoY13, 668 while arrivals from Africa rose 53 percent YoY 1, 267. Arrivals from Asia & Pacific rose 1.8 percent YoY to 91, 909. Tourists from South Asia edged up 0.8 percent YoY 41, 319 despite higher arrivals from India. Visitors from Oceania, which mainly consists of Australia and New Zealand, rose 28.4 percent YoY to 10, 208. Arrivals from Europe, led by UK, the Netherlands, Germany and France rose 9.2 percent YoY to 96, 468. Tourists from Eastern and Central European countries, led by Russia and Ukraine, rose 17 percent YoY 6, 312. Middle Eastern arrivals fell marginally by 0.2 percent YoY to 14, 517 during July.

For the first seven months, Sri Lanka has attracted little over 1.38 million tourists, up 13.7 percent YoY. The government aims to attract three million tourists this year. Tourist arrivals in 2017 hit an all-time high of 2.11 million, which represented a 3.2 percent growth YoY.