Tourist arrivals in May 2025 recoded the highest-ever arrivals for the month
Albeit been the lowest monthly performance for 2025 so far, tourist arrivals in May 2025 recorded the highest-ever arrivals for the month.
132,919 tourists arrived in May, reflecting a 19% year-on-year (YoY) growth. However, this fell short of the month’s target of 165,118 by 20% or 32,199 visitors. The previous highest was in 2018 May, which saw 129,466 arrivals.
May’s performance pushed the year-to-date (YTD) arrivals to over 1.02 million, marking a 15% year-on-year (YoY) increase.
India remained the leading source market for May, contributing 47,001 tourists or 35.4% of the total. The UK followed with 9,221, while China added 8,803 visitors. Bangladesh, Germany, Australia, France, the US, Canada, and Russia featured prominently among top contributors.
In addition, India continues to dominate YTD arrivals with 204,060 visitors, followed by Russia with 110,421, and the UK with 96,274, whilst Germany and France round out the top five YTD contributors.
Whilst the island is making a robust recovery aided by renewed global interest and momentum (mostly organic) , Sri Lanka still faces an uphill climb to reach the ambitious annual target of 3 million visitors and $ 5 billion in revenue.
It must attract more than 1.97 million tourists over the next seven months or welcome over 65.7% visitors to meet the year’s target: Meaning monthly arrivals would need to average over 282,000 - a sharp increase compared to the current average of 206,000 visitors.
The much anticipated Global Marketing campaign conspicuously remains a “no go”, with industry veterans claiming that they are kept in the dark and tourism beaurocrats going silent. Sri Lanka Tourism proposal to offer free-visa scheme for 39 countries approved in August 2024, inexplicably remains unimplemented, as well.
The prediction is that Sri Lanka’s tourism sector will grow at a slower rate than the lofty goals set out by the government.
At the current pace, 2.5 million tourist arrivals in 2025 looks doable barring unforeseen hiccups.
Hospitality Sri Lanka
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