Tourists arrivals reach 1.08 mn

Sri Lanka, looking at a target of 2.5 million plus arrivals and making 2024 the best year for tourism, passed the total arrival mark of 1,077,251 on July 11. The country attracted 67,002 arrivals up to the first 11 days of July.

January to June visitor numbers were 624,874 in the first six months of 2023 and this increased to 1,010,249 during the corresponding period in 2024 showing a 61.7% increase. As a result of a notable revival in tourist arrivals Sri Lanka’s tourism earnings, from the revenue side, total earnings from the industry in the first six months of 2024 stood at USD 1,556.6 billion as against 875.0 during the corresponding period in 2023 showing a mammoth 77.9% increase.

The average daily arrivals have increased to 5,000 plus. With high connectivity between India and now also Jaffna the top arrival destination for Sri Lanka was once again India accounting for 204,011 visitors.

The Russian Federation was second with 115,543 while the United Kingdom (95,149) Germany (73,513) and China (67,83) were third, fourth and fifth. France (52,442) was the sixth country to field over 50,000 arrivals for the first six months.

However, there were notable Russian arrivals in June due to its winter season traffic reduction.

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