October 2024 tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka pushes year-to-date total beyond 1.6 million
135,907 tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka in October 2024 was a 25% rise compared to 109,199 in the same month last year. However, that increasing rate is below the year-to-date growth rate of 44% in the first 10 months of this year. October’24’s total arrivals also fell short of the monthly target of 153,123 by 17,216 visitors.
Despite the U.S. Embassy in Colombo, issuing a travel advisory (on 23rd October), asking its nationals to avoid Arugam Bay, a popular tourist destination in the island nation’s Eastern coast, over a potential attack, and with Australia, Israel, Russia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United Kingdom following suit; official government data revealed that foreign visitors to the country recorded 37,287 in the last eight days of October this year - a 35% gain, compared to 27,649 in the same time period in 2023.
India remains the largest source market with 36,417, (26.8%) arrivals during October 2024. Russia took 2nd spot with 10,367, (7.6%) visitors, followed by UK’s 10,206, (7.5%). Germany and China slotted in at 4th and 5th places, producing 9,217 (6.8%) and 8,307 (6.1%) visitors, respectfully. At 8th place, Bangladesh was an unexpected entrant into the ‘Top 10’ list - with 3,732 (2.1%) arrivals from that country.
The total arrivals to the country in the first ten months of 2024 stood at 1,620,715.
During this period (Jan – Oct), the Indian market has contributed 322,973 tourists, the UK 146,670, Russia 137,599, Germany 108,788, China 105,574, France 75,775, Australia 68,527, the US 46,848, Netherlands 42,836 and the Maldives 37,337 – making them the ‘Top 10’ source markets by country, thus far.
The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) has revised its initial target of 2.3 million visitors with anticipated revenue of US$ 4.5 billion for 2024 to 2 million visitors and total revenue of just over $ 3 billion, with its new Chairman stating that the original forecast was optimistic under current conditions.
The island will need to attract a total 379,285 international tourists in the last two months of the year (Nov / Dec), if it is to achieve the revised 2 million visitors target for 2024.
Beginning 30th October 202, Poland’s largest private airline ‘Enter Air’, commenced flight services between Warsaw and Colombo. The charter connection will operate regularly until end March 2025.
Edelweiss Air has resumed its seasonal flight operations to Sri Lanka for the winter, carrying 221 passengers on its first flight, which landed at Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) on November 1, 2024. Edelweiss, wholly owned by Swiss International Airlines and a member of the Lufthansa Group, will operate direct flights between Zurich and Colombo until May 9, 2025.
Meanwhile, the ‘Traveller’ magazine released its list of “100 all – time greatest destinations”. Sri Lanka is featured in position 30.
Hospitality Sri Lanka
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