December welcomes 210,352 tourists as Sri Lanka records 1,487 million arrivals in 2023
Despite missing out on its target of welcoming 242,135 tourists in December, Sri Lanka welcomed a total of 1.487 million international visitors during the full year of 2023. The year’s target of a total 1.55 million was missed out by just around 4%. A noteworthy result nevertheless.
While December recorded the highest monthly tourist arrivals for the year and also since the pandemic struck, December’s actual arrivals total of 210,352 fell short of its target by over 13%. A comparison monthly arrival / actual vs. set target reveals that the set target was archived in only four months of 2023: February, March, April and May.
India continues to retain its position as the largest source market for Sri Lanka tourism, bringing in 21 percent of the total tourism arrivals for December. The Russian Federation, ranking second, accounted for 14 percent of the total arrivals, while the United Kingdom, the third largest tourist traffic generator, contributed to 9 percent of the total arrivals.
India also retained its position as the single biggest market including 302,844 tourists (21%) of total arrivals in 2023, followed by the Russian Federation with 197,498 (13%), the UK with 130,088 (9%), Germany with 102,539 (7%) and China with 68,789 (5%).
The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) and Ministry of Tourism were confident that Sri Lanka would end 2023 with 1.55 million international visitors. At the beginning of 2023, the tourist arrival target for the year was set as 1.5 million. However, emboldened by seeing an early pickup in the monthly arrival rate, it was revised swiftly to 1.55 million. SLTDA could do well to avoid changing the goalposts to sneak in their goal – especially when arrivals targets go south. Better to set an arrivals goal for the year as well as a stretch-goal – all things been equal and if going well.
Overall, 2023’s performance is 36.5% lower than the record of 2.3 million in the benchmark year 2018 and 22.5% lower than 2019. Tourism earnings for 2023 are believed to have also exceeded the US$ 2 billion mark. In 2022, Sri Lanka’s tourism earnings were $ 1.13 billion.
The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) has declared an ambitious target of 2.5 million tourists and aims to generate $ 4.6 billion in revenue for the year 2024.
It is based on seeing a further boost in tourist arrivals from the top source markets, running until the end of March 2024 (end of winter season), with more charter flights resuming services and international airlines expanding their weekly frequencies.
Hospitality Sri Lanka
|
|
|
|
