September tourist arrivals down but YTD figure up 3%

By Charumini de Silva

Tourist arrivals suffered their second dip in three months as September data signalled a worrying performance. 

Tourist arrivals fell by 2.3% to 145,077 in September from a year earlier, largely affected by a sharp drop in visitors from key tourism sourcing markets including China, Germany and France, Government data released yesterday revealed. The September performance was of concern as in August arrivals rose by 2.5% after July numbers declined by 1.8%.

So far this year five months have reported declines year-on-year with a dip in the early part of the year linked to the partial closure of the Bandaranaike International Airport.

In February and March arrivals were down 0.1% and 2.5% over the previous year whilst April saw a welcome yet unusually high growth of 17.5%. However, since then May produced a decline only to bounce back in June (up 4.8%) and dip by 1.8% in July. 

The September decline of 2.3% to 145,077 had brought the year-to-date figure to 1.55 million, up by 3%. The disturbing growth also comes amidst Tourism Minister John Amaratunga reiterating his confidence that the original 2017 target will be met. 

With three more months to go industry analysts were sceptical about this.  

Year-to-date, India continues to lead arrival figures with 267,601 followed by China (208,635), the UK (153,971), Germany (98,033) and France (77,718). 

However, tourists from Western Europe fell 0.9% to 36,610 in September though up 6.4% to 516,789 in the first nine months. Tourist arrivals from Germany fell sharply by 15.1% to 8,574 in September, while France dropped 7.4% to 4,637. Visitors from the UK and Netherlands increased 2.5% to 12,593 and 31% to 3,818 respectively.  

Travellers from East Asia plunged 8.9% to 31,127 where Chinese visitors continued to drop 14.3% to 18,939, breaking off from a trend of double-digit growth seen in recent years. Tourists from China during the period of January to September fell 2.1% to 208,635 compared to 213,103 during the same period last year.

Eastern Europe tourist arrivals grew by 3.6% to 109,119 during the first nine months. 

Sri Lanka’s Tourism Development Minister John Amaratunga recently announced the country would soon unveil the much-awaited Tourism Vision 2025 and Tourism Strategic Plan 2020, setting out the long-term strategy and objectives of the industry towards making it the top foreign exchange earner in the country.