Tourist arrivals growth slows to 9.2% in early December

Tourists seen taking a boat ride down south
 Pic by Kushan Pathiraja

Sri Lanka’s tourist arrivals growth slowed down to 9.2 percent Year-on-Year (YoY) in the first 11 days of December this year, as the island nation welcomed 68,648 tourists during this period.

The daily average of tourist arrivals for the first 11 days of December stood at approximately 6,241 tourists per day, slightly higher than the daily average of 6,138 tourists recorded in November this year. Based on current trends, Sri Lanka is likely to welcome between 193,471 and 229,644 tourists for December. However, this falls short of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority’s (SLTDA) projections, which estimated 236,485 arrivals under a conservative scenario and 256,389 under an optimistic scenario.

Despite this, Sri Lanka remains on track to surpass the two million tourist arrivals mark for the year if the current momentum continues.

Last month, foreign countries withdrew travel advisories, which specifically warned against threats targeting the popular surfing destination Arugam Bay.

India continued to dominate as the top source market, contributing 14,358 arrivals, followed closely by Russia with 10,707  visitors, while Germany clinched third  position with 4,953 arrivals. The United Kingdom fell to fourth spot with 4,896 arrivals followed by China with 4,076 arrivals. Australia, United States, Poland, France and Bangladesh were among the top source markets during the period. 

Cumulative arrivals for 2024 have reached the 1.87 million mark, with India accounting for 378,451 arrivals, followed by Russia (177,359 ) and the UK (164,478 ). Analysts project total arrivals for the year to reach between 2 million and 2.1 million, falling short of the original target of 2.3 million. 

(NF)