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September tourist arrivals fall 414 short of last year’s tally

Sri Lanka welcomed 158,557 tourists in September, falling just 414 short of the 158,971 arrivals recorded in the same month last year, after a slim lead built over the first 27 days was erased in the final three days of the month, the latest Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) data showed.

Arrivals for the first 27 days stood at 143,623, which was 538 ahead of the same period last year. However, the island attracted only 14,934 holidaymakers in the last three days, when compared to 15,886 a year ago, turning the month into a marginal 0.26 percent decline.

September thus became the fourth consecutive month of year-on-year (YoY) contraction, although the smallest of the four, following declines of 9.9 percent in June, 1.7 percent in July and 3.3 percent in August. The month’s arrivals nevertheless remained 6.4 percent above the 149,087 recorded in September 2018.

Cumulative arrivals for the nine months reached 1,693,679, down 1.8 percent, or 31,815 tourists, when compared to the same period last year.

India remained the largest source market with 51,931 arrivals, up 4.5 percent YoY, accounting for nearly a third of the month’s total. Excluding India, arrivals fell 2.4 percent to 106,626.

Australia grew 20.3 percent to 10,951, China 11.4 percent to 11,722 and Japan 30.2 percent to 5,387, while the United Kingdom remained largely flat at 10,738.

However, Germany declined 22.1 percent to 7,277 and Spain 29.1 percent to 3,430, while France slipped 5.2 percent to 4,876 and Bangladesh 14.8 percent to 4,220. The Netherlands dropped out of the top ten, with the Maldives entering the list at 4,230.

Meanwhile, in the nine months, Russian arrivals fell 32.1 percent to 82,991, the steepest decline among the top 20 markets, while India grew 16.6 percent to 437,414, lifting its share of total arrivals to 25.8 percent from 21.7 percent.

The island now needs 806,541 arrivals in the final quarter to reach SLTDA’s conservative scenario of 2.5 million, which is 26.6 percent above the 637,027 welcomed in the same quarter last year. Even the lower scenario of 2.38 million requires 7.3 percent growth, while matching last year’s full-year tally of 2,362,521 requires 5.0 percent.