April 01, Colombo (LNW): As of March 27, 2024, Sri Lanka has witnessed a remarkable surge in tourist arrivals, surpassing the 600,000 milestone within the first 27 days of March.
This achievement was reported by provisional data from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), and reflects a significant acceleration compared to the previous year.
In 2023, the country reached the 600,000 mark towards the end of June, highlighting the accelerated pace of recovery in the tourism sector.
Historical comparisons underscore the resilience of Sri Lanka’s tourism industry, with the country successfully crossing the 700,000 mark by the end of March in both 2018 and 2019, prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Easter Sunday attacks.
As of the reporting date, Sri Lanka has welcomed a total of 181,872 international visitors, with a weekly arrival average of approximately 46,000 and a daily average of about 6,700.
Projections indicate that tourist arrivals are expected to surpass the 200,000 mark by the end of March.
Analysis of tourist arrival trends since 2015 suggests that the influx of international visitors typically experiences a slowdown from the third month of the year until July.
Leading the surge in tourist traffic for March 2024 is India, constituting 16 per cent of the total arrivals, followed closely by the Russian Federation at 14 per cent.
Germany ranks third, contributing 9 per cent of the total tourist arrivals, with the United Kingdom and China securing the fourth and fifth positions, respectively.
Meanwhile, earnings from tourism for the first two months of the year amounted to US$ 687 million, reflecting an impressive year-on-year growth of 118.2 per cent compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, Central Bank data showed.
