The number of tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka passed the 900,000 mark this month registering 912,445 from January to date. The number of tourist arrivals from June 1-5, stood at 15,666.
For the second month in succession, the number of arrivals for April and May were under 200,000 and this is expected to continue this month as well.
From November 2023 to March 2024 the country maintained an arrival rate of over 200,000 per month. The number of arrivals for April was recorded at 148,867 and total arrivals from January to May 30 stood at 893,316.
The main reason for the drop was the ending of the winter season in Europe.
“Arrivals are accepted to pick up from July,” industry sources said. The Tourism Ministry is confident that they would be able to pass Sri Lanka’s best ever arrival figure of 1.5 million achieved in 2018 this year.
“However, the scheduled Presidential elections may have some negative impact on arrivals towards the end of the year,” they said.
The top source market for Sri Lanka from January to date was India with 160,184 followed by the Russian Federation (111,170) , the United Kingdom (81,446) and Germany (66,211) while China was in fifth place.
