As per provisional data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), a total of 208,253 tourists arrived in January. However, January arrivals could not achieve the 241,962 set target or 210,352 recorded in December – the highest for a month since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
January also witnessed a consistent upward trend, in the first two weeks and peaking at 49,341 in the third week. However, a slight decline was observed in the fourth week followed by 18,679 in the last three days of the month.
The January tourist arrivals are an increase of 103.1% year-on-year (YoY) compared to the 102,545 in 2023. However, the January performance is still 13% lower compared to the 238,924 in the benchmark year 2018.
India continues to dominate with 16% as the top tourist source market for Sri Lanka with 34,399 tourists closely followed by Russia with 31,159, the UK with 16,665, Germany with 13,593 and China with 11,511. In addition, tourists were also received from countries such as France, Poland, Australia, the US and the Netherlands in January.
Last week, industry analysts told the Daily FT that January arrivals were on track to surpass 200,000 and could end up with nearly 210,000 visitors, citing the monthly target was too ambitious.
Since mid-2021, the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) has rolled out promotions in several countries and from September last year, the first phase of an interim digital campaign was rolled out aiming to inform travellers that Sri Lanka is safe to visit and ready to welcome internationally. The ongoing ‘Checking in’ campaign will tell Sri Lanka is ready to welcome the whole world with the country returning to stability. The subsequent stages will further expand on the core message ‘You’ll come back for more’ and are widely promoted among major source markets of Sri Lanka Tourism.
The stakeholders hoped that if the momentum would continue with a curated line-up of events in the first half of the year, the industry would see faster growth.
Building on the robust momentum gained in 2023, where Sri Lanka welcomed almost 1.5 million visitors and surpassed $ 2 billion in earnings since 2019, the SLTDA has set an ambitious target of 2.3 million tourists and aims to generate over $ 4 billion in revenue for 2024.
It also anticipates a further boost in tourist arrivals from India, Russia and Europe till the end of the winter season or the end of next month with more charter flight services and international airlines expanding their frequencies.
