Sri Lanka tourist arrivals passed the 100,000 mark in the month of May registering 108,665 arrivals at the end of the month. For the second month in succession, arrivals were registered under the 200,000 mark which the country maintained for around six months.
Arrivals for 2024 April were 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. The top source destination for Sri Lanka was India with 31,225 and taking a market share of 28.7%. The Maldives was second with 7,984 while the United Kingdom (7,844) was third. Germany with 7,374 was fourth and China, which was among the top two destinations before the COVID pandemic was fifth (7,180).
Many travel sector officials pointed out that due to the slow economic recovery due to the C-19 pandemic the Chinese government is extensively promoting domestic tourism and hence overseas travel is somewhat slow to take off and is one reason for Chinese arrivals to dip. Meanwhile tourism revenue in 2023 January to April which was at USD 652.2 has doubled to USD1,251.6 during the corresponding period in 2024.
