Is Sri Lanka Tourism's recovery beginning to stagnate?
As per figures released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SlTDA), the total number of international tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka during October 2019 was 118,743,. When compared to October 2018, last month’s arrivals were less by 22.5%.
India, China, United Kingdom, Germany and Russia were Sri Lanka’s top five international tourist generating markets in the month of October this year. Arrivals from these 5 countries accounted for 57% of October’s total.
India was the largest source of tourist traffic to Sri Lanka with 28% of the total traffic received in October 2019.China accounted for 10% of the total traffic; while United Kingdom, Germany and Russia accounted for 7%, 7% and 5% respectively.
Interestingly, after a somewhat vigorous initial bounce back in the aftermath of the April incident, the recovery has been somewhat sluggish. October 2019 saw a mere 3,042 more visitors than that achieved four months earlier - in July 2019.
During the period July – October 2019, the country has attracted an average 121,642 visitors per month. When one deducts the 25,000+ Borahs who came in August 2019; it really works out to an unimpressive average of 115,392 arrivals per month.
As at 31st October 2019, 1,495,055 of tourists had visited Sri Lanka for this year. It is a decline of 20.7% over last year when 1,885,045 of tourists has visited the country during the same period.
A couple of months ago, the SLTDA chairman was confident that the country will attract 2.1 million visitors in 2019. This has subsequently been recently reduced to 1.9 million and no doubt may be revised nearer year-end,to 1,8 million?
Report compiled by In2ition
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