Tourist arrivals fall short in September amid visa issuance crisis

• First 29 days of September draw 118,010 visitors, while month expected to close with over 122,000 arrivals
• September arrivals 23% lower than in August and 31% lower than in July, continuing trend of missing monthly targets in 2024
• Daily average arrivals struggle with 4,069 visitors „„Sri Lanka welcomes 1.48 m tourists YTD, country on verge of reaching 1.5 m mark

By Charumini de Silva

Sri Lanka has attracted over 118,000 visitors in the first 29 days of September with the industry experts predicting the month will close with over 122,000 arrivals though it will fall short of the monthly target of 150,983.

They claimed that the shortfall continues a trend, as monthly targets were missed throughout 2024 so far. Tourist arrivals in the first 29 days of September totalled 118,010, compared to 153,302 and 170,647 visitors in August and July respectively, reflecting a decline of 23% and 31%. Industry stakeholders attributed this slowdown to the previous administration’s failure to promptly comply with the Supreme Court order on 2 August to reinstate the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA). Despite the new regime restoring the ETA system from midnight on 26 September, which led to an increase in daily arrivals, there was not sufficient time to boost the struggling average to over 6,000 visitors per day, resulting in a daily average of 4,069 tourists. Year-to-date (YTD), Sri Lanka has attracted over 1.48 million tourists, with the country on the verge of reaching the 1.5 million mark. In the first 29 days of September, India emerged as the top source market contributing 27,083 visitors, followed by China with 8,584 and the UK with 8,410 tourists. YTD, India also remained the single biggest market that has sent 285,755 visitors, while the UK ranks second with 136,186 and Russia ranks third with 126,885. Sri Lanka has set an ambitious target of attracting 2.3 million tourists by the end of 2024 and aims to generate over $ 4 billion in revenue.