Tourist arrival crosses 100,000 mark in September

Tourist arrivals to the island nation crossed the 100,000 mark within the first 26 days of September, provisional data from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) showed.

While the data is available till 25 September, the daily arrival average indicate the 100,000 milestone was crossed last Thursday.

For the first 25 days of September, a total of 99,955 international visitors entered the island nation, bringing the year to date arrival up to 1.46 million. The weekly arrival average is of about 26,000 while the daily arrival average is about 3,998, slightly higher when compared last week.

The largest tourist traffic generator for the island nation remains India, which accounted for 21.6 percent of the total arrivals in September. In second place is the United Kingdom, which contributed to 7.4 percent of the total arrivals. In third place is Germany, which accounted for 6.9 percent of the total arrivals.

Other key source markets include China, Australia, Spain, and Bangladesh.

The island nation saw its tourist arrival to the island nation dampen over the last several weeks due to the absence of a visa issuing system after a directive was issued by the Supreme Court to suspend the system managed by the VFS Global led consortium.

Although on-arrival visa facilities were extended at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), due to shortage of staff, tourists had to deal with long queues and delays in obtaining visas. 

However, after several weeks of delay in reverting to the previous system, on Thursday the government reactivated the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) system, which is managed by Mobitel. The move is a big relief for the tourism sector which expressed serious concerns on the outcome in the upcoming season.