Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka for May 2023, lowest in year
Interim data from Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) reveals that in May 2023, the island nation welcomed a total 83, 309 international visitors.
When compared with the corresponding month in 2022, the arrivals increased by a mammoth 175.5 percent year-on-year (YoY).
Despite that, tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka fell below the 100,000 mark for the first time this year, due to the fall in momentum in the month of May, particularly after Sri Lanka’s tourism industry has witnessed better-than-expected monthly growth on the arrivals from the start of 2023.
However, May recorded the lowest tourist arrivals for this year so far. This though is not to be unexpected. Knowledgeable industry leaders and analysts have known for a long time that typically, throughout the past decades, tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka take a plunge in May every year, due to it being the commencement of the ‘off-season’.
Infact, in early May 2023, ‘Economy Next’ reported the Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority Priyantha Fernando, saying “If you go through the statistics of the last 50 years, May is the lowest month in the arrivals as it is the beginning of the off-season”. This was after, statistics collected for the first 11 days in May 2023, showed a daily arrival average of 2,687, and a weekly arrival average of 20,847 - both of which were the lowest recorded for 2023.
The Chairman also went on to quote, ““The target that we have set for the month of May based on the analytical and statistical way, is at around 60,000 and we will be exceeding that target”, going to say, “Occupancy over the next few months will start picking up in the eastern provinces and a little bit in hill countries,” Fernando said, adding that the peak Chinese arrivals fall within the off season for Sri Lanka.
Accordingly, the cumulative tourist arrivals for 1 January to 31 May reached 524, 486, as against 378,521 in 2022 for the same period.
Ranking as the top tourism traffic generator for the month of May was India, which contributed to 28 %( 23,016) of the total tourist arrivals. The Russian Federation ranked 2nd, bringing in 9 % (7,760) of the total international visitors. Moving up the list was Germany, which emerged as the 3rd largest source market for Sri Lanka tourism, overtaking the United Kingdom. Germany and contributed 8 % (6,854) to the total tourist arrivals, whereas the UK’s tally was 7 % (5,987).
Other key markets included Australia and China accounted 5 percent each of the total tourist traffic.
Sri Lanka has so far achieved 26 % of its targeted 2 million arrivals for year 2023. During the balance seven months between the periods June to December, it would need to attract, 1,475,514 tourists, which represents an average 211, 000 per month.
Tourism earnings in the first five months of 2023 were at US$ 827.8 million, reflecting a 30.4 percent increase from the corresponding period last year, whilst May earnings racked up $ 131.5 million, the latest central Bank data released showed.
Hospitality Sri Lanka
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