Sri Lanka will reach the one million tourist arrival mark before the end of this month. As at June 23 arrivals were at 84,383 and with the daily average figure of around 3,800 the country would surpass the one million mark before the end of the month.
From January 2024 to date, India is the biggest source market for Sri Lanka with 178,466 arrivals and accounting to around 25% of the market share while Russian Federation with 113,261, United Kingdom (86,816) and Germany (68,677) remained second, third and fourth. Currently Chinese arrivals are at the fifth place with 61,468 arrivals. With the recommencement of Chongqing Airlines operations in Sri Lanka, it will help boost Chinese tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka and also help to strengthen economic cooperation in the areas of trade, investment, finance, education, and culture between China and Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka Tourism is predicting that the country would be able to get more than 2.5 million and record the best year in tourism surpassing the figure of 2.5 million achieved in 2018.
Meanwhile tourism revenue from January to May stood at 1,405 million as against 702 million which was recorded during the corresponding period showing a 86.9% increase. (SS)
