Late month surge brings 145,745 tourists to Sri Lanka in May 2026
Sri Lanka welcomed 145,745 international tourists in May 2026, marking a 9.7% growth compared to May 2025. A late-month surge pushed total arrivals for the first five months of the year to total 1,022,022 tourist arrivals, according to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA).
India remained the leading source market during May, contributing 60,342 (41%) visitors. In 2nd slot was UK with 9,248 (06%) visitors, followed by 9,156 tourists (06%) from China. Arrivals from Germany totaled 6,734 (5%), whilst Australia made it to the top 5, with 6,414 (4%). Tourists from the Maldives, the US, France, Bangladesh and the Russian Federation completed the top 10 list, in that order.
Meanwhile, from January 1st to May 31st, India maintained its position as Sri Lanka’s largest tourist source market with 250,260 arrivals. The United Kingdom (98,093), Russian Federation (76,073), China (67,947) and Germany (66,023) also ranked among the top five source markets during the same period.
Analysts cited flight schedules gradually returning to normal after the conflict as reasons for the improvement in May tourist arrivals.
Sri Lanka has also witnessed a sharp fall in tourism revenue since the start of the Middle East conflict.
This sudden geopolitical shock pulled cumulative earnings for the first quarter of 2026 down by 15 percent to US$ 954 million, placing the government’s ambitious year-end targets of 3 million arrivals and US$ 4 billion to US$ 4.5 billion in revenue in serious jeopardy.
Cumulative earnings for the first four months of 2026 also weakened significantly, falling 19.4% YoY to $ 1.11 billion compared to $ 1.37 billion during the same period last year. During that four-month period (Jan – April), 896,884 tourists visited the country in 2025, whilst the total for the same period in 2026 was 876,277 tourists.
The downturn reflects both weaker arrivals and lower per capita spending.
In a bid to stimulate demand, the Government finally moved to implement its long-delayed free visa policy.
According to key findings of the experimental TSA (Tourism Satellite Account), 31.3% of the total inbound budget was spent by tourists on Food & Beverage, followed by land transport services (22.3%) and Accommodation services (17.8%) last year.
Hospitality Sri Lanka
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