Tourism earnings up 12% to $ 768.2 m in first two months

Monday, 17 March 2025 05:03 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

February earnings at $ 367.6 m reflect 6.3% YoY growth, highest since 2020
Month-on-month basis, February earnings down 9%
Year-to-date arrivals top 600,000 mark in 1H of March

Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is off to a strong start in 2025, raking in $ 768.2 million during the first two months, marking a 12% year-on-year (YoY) growth in tandem with the boost in arrivals.

Tourism earnings in February stood at $ 367.6 million, reflecting a 6.3% increase from the corresponding period of last year, the latest Central Bank data released showed.

It is also the highest earnings registered since 2020.

However, on a month-on-month comparison, February earnings were 9% lower than January 2025.

The highest-ever earnings recorded in February were in 2019, amounting to $ 475 million, and the all-time peak in monthly earnings was $ 475.2 million in December 2018.

The industry expressed optimism about early indications of a significant performance, whilst asserting that it was imperative to roll out the global campaign with the pending free-visa initiative for 39 countries to sustain the momentum and achieve the set targets by the year-end.

For 2025, Sri Lanka Tourism aims to achieve an ambitious 3 million visitors and $ 5 billion in income.

Sri Lanka also received over 600,000 tourists during the first 15 days of March, marking a robust start of the year.

After absorbing the brunt of several COVID-19 waves in 2020 and 2021, followed by the crisis-ridden 2022 with adverse global publicity of political instability and economic crux, Sri Lanka’s tourism industry proved its resilience and made a strong comeback in 2024—registering 2.05 million tourists and generating over $ 3.2 billion in revenue, a staggering 52.38% YoY increase.

Tourism remains an important source of net foreign currency earnings for the country, as foreign currency outflows on account of inputs are minimal.

According to Central Bank data, between 2014 and 2019, tourism contributed to about 14% of total foreign currency earnings during this period. Unfortunately, Sri Lanka lost around $ 15 billion amidst multiple challenges during the past four years from tourism sector earnings.

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