Tourist arrivals up by 22% in May

Tourist arrivals rose by 21.8% to 70,026 in May from a year earlier, recording the highest percentage growth for a month for the year.

Data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority yesterday showed arrivals topping 438,653 during the first five months of the year, a 13.2% increase from the period a year ago.

The top 10 markets as at end of May show India continuing its hold as Sri Lanka’s biggest tourist market with 70,125 tourists, followed by the traditional markets UK and Germany with 48,886 and 33,452 respectively. Also in the top 10 are France (27,504), Maldives (21,885), Australia (18,669), Middle East (17,655), Russia (14,792), China (13,817) and USA (13,544).

The largest arrivals from a single country during the month also came from neighbouring India which recording an arrival base of 17,233 in May, an 8.5% growth from a year earlier.



Recognised as a traditional market, the UK, which has established itself as the second biggest tourist generator to Sri Lanka, recorded an increase of 27.5%, even though the numbers only read 6,299 as tourists visiting Sri Lanka for the month. Following behind taking up the positions as third, fourth and fifth is Germany, Maldives, and France with arrivals reading 4,263 (45.5%), 3,825 (3.7%), and 3,490 (8.2%). 

Regionally, South Asia recorded the largest number of arrivals numbering 23,819 with a 14.4% growth over the same month of the previous year. Arrivals from Western Europe was 19,966 (28%), East Asia 11,983, Eastern Europe 3,502 and North America 4,400. Tourists from Middle East were recorded as 2,632, Australasia 3,314, and Latin America and the Caribbean 92.

When assessing percentage wise growth for the month, the largest growth was seen from Indonesia which noted a 199.4 % despite the total arrival number being 473. This was followed by Pakistan with an increase of 116.6%.

Negative growth was seen from Thailand and New Zealand of 1.9% and 3.6% respectively, while Middle East, a key emerging region for the country also showed a negative growth of 1.6% from a year earlier with only 2,632 tourists coming in to Sri Lanka.