July tourist arrivals up 6%

• India, China, the UK continue as top sourcing markets 
• Europe top source of tourist traffic to SL with 44% of total received

 Total tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka during July reached 217,829, the latest data released by the Government revealed yesterday, posting a growth of 6% over the previous year's corresponding period and pushing cumulative arrivals to 1.2 million. 

According to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), in July the largest source market for tourists was India, followed by China and the United Kingdom.

As at 31 July 2018, 1,382,476 tourists had visited Sri Lanka for this year. It is a 13.7% growth over last year when 1,215,926 tourists had visited the country during the same period.

Europe continued to be the largest source of tourist traffic to Sri Lanka with 44% of the total traffic received in July 2018, while Asia and Pacific accounted for 42% of the total traffic, the Middle East 7%, America 6% and Africa 0.5%.

India, China, the United Kingdom, Netherlands and France were Sri Lanka’s top five international tourist generating markets in July this year.

India was the largest source of tourist traffic to Sri Lanka with 14% of the total traffic received in July 2018. China accounted for 13% of the total traffic, while the United Kingdom, Netherlands and France accounted for 12%, 6% and 5% respectively.

Earnings from tourism in May increased to $ 240 million y-o-y, with cumulative earnings amounting to $ 1,888 million during the first five months of 2018, the Central Bank said in its latest External Performance report.