SL welcomes over 25,000 tourists in first three weeks of July

• First 17 days of July attracts 25,544 tourists amidst adverse travel advisories on SL
• Pushes cumulative figure to 436,921
• Daily average arrivals pick up slightly to 1,503 from previous two months 
• UK tops tourist arrivals with 4,068 followed by India 2,872 and Germany 2,045

By Charumini de Silva

Sri Lanka has attracted over 25,000 tourists in the first three weeks of this month, despite the multiple challenges emanating from political, economic and social issues over the past couple of months.

It is a slight uptick in tourist arrivals compared to the previous two months in June and May’s first three weeks, despite several countries having imposed adverse travel advisories on Sri Lanka.

As per the provisional data by Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), a total of 25,544 tourists have arrived during the first 17 days of the month, whilst pushing the cumulative figure to 436,921 so far.

The data shows that the daily average arrivals have improved slightly to 1,503 from 1,095 for the entirety of June and 974 in May — extending some hope to the triple-hit industry since 2019.

During the first week of July, there were 10,334 tourist arrivals, and the trend improved slightly in the second week to 10,622 tourists, but it dropped to 4,588 tourists from 15 to 17 July.

As of 17 July, the UK topped the tourist traffic to Sri Lanka with 16% or 4,068 followed by India with 11% or 2,872 tourists, and Germany with 8% or 2,045 visitors. In addition, tourists were also received from Canada, France, Switzerland, Australia, Russia, the US and the Netherlands.

India continues to stand strong as the top tourist’s source market for Sri Lanka with cumulative number of arrivals at 71,633 followed by the UK with 53,690, Russia 47,308, Germany 35,487, France 23,817, Australia 15,818, Canada 15,004, Ukraine 13,815, Poland 13,009 and US 12,571.

However, the industry stakeholders pointed out that the sector and economy have taken a heavy toll from the triple blow since 2019, which is incomparable to any other trade or tourism destination.

On 6 July, former Tourism Minister Harin Fernando said Sri Lanka was expecting one million tourists by the end of the year, whilst capitalising on new markets as well as on the neighbouring giant — India.

He also confirmed that Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) will soon commence the marketing campaign in five key Indian cities which include Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi, whilst venturing into a first-time destination as well — Gujarat, noting that they will set up a promotion office in a first-time destination, Gujarat.

In June, Sri Lanka Tourism kicked off the ‘Sri Lanka Can’ campaign, to boost arrivals, with the support from Bollywood actors Chitrangada Sing and Dino Morea who will speak positively about the atmosphere in destination Sri Lanka.

It was revealed that three road shows are planned for India, as an immediate promotion, whilst they hope to roll out a marketing campaign in risk-averse markets such as India, the Middle East, Russia and CIS countries soon.