Over 177,400 tourist arrivals during first 22 days of 2024

Sri Lankan tourism looking for a target of attracting over 2.5 million arrivals for 2025 is set to be on course as the first 22 days of 2024, January saw 177,403 arrivals.

This also bettered several months of individual arrivals made in 2024 including the entire month visitor figure of September (122,140) and October. (135,907)

Following this pattern, India was the best market for Sri Lanka from January 1 to 14, 2025, with 19,353 and an average of 17.2%.  The Russian Federation with 17,225 (15.3%), United Kingdom 9,178 (8.2%) and Germany 7,455 (6.6%) were second, third and fourth. Sri Lanka also averaged around 8,000 arrivals per day in a year. The government is targeting 2.5 million arrivals and making 2025 the best year for tourism in the country’s history.

Meanwhile, President Sri Lanka Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO) and Managing Director Aitken Spence Travels Nalin Jayasundara said that arrivals are very positive and charter flights too are continuing. “However, we expect a dip in cruise arrivals not due to any fault of Sri Lanka but due to the Red Sea Crisis.” Chinese arrivals moved up from the seventh position to the fifth 9,337 with a 5.3% increase over December 2024 and is further expected to climb up after their new year celebrations ending January.  The recent visit by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has also given a huge destination marketing campaign boost for Sri Lankan tourism in China.

With 30,847 arrivals accounting to 17.4% of the total arrivals India was the top destination for Sri Lanka while Russian Federation with 25,608 – 14.4%), United Kingdom (14,959 8.4%) and Germany were second, third and fourth.  4 Germany (10,873 – 6.1%) respectively.

Sri Lanka’s best year of tourism was achieved in 2018 when the country after ending hostilities with LTTE recorded 2,333,796 and last year had 2,053,465.  (SS)

The post Over 177,400 tourist arrivals during first 22 days of 2024 appeared first on DailyNews.