Tourist arrivals till October 13 surpass total figure of 2023

Making a historic landmark in the Sri Lankan leisure industry, Tourist arrivals up to October 13, which were 1,540,161 totally surpassed the total numbers of visitors for 2023 which was 1,487,303.

With 55,353 numbers recorded from 1, to 13, October 2024 and averaging around 4,000 arrivals per day, the monthly arrival figure is also expected to better the 2023 monthly October figure of 109,199 by the third week of this month.

The top source destination for the local leisure sector remained as India which had 16,163 arrivals so far in the month of October, accounting to 29.2% of the total market share. To date 302,719 Indian travelers had visited Sri Lanka and with Jaffna having two daily flights from air India and Indigo and the ferry service resuming this number is expected to increase further. China moved up and remained as the second top destination for tourism with 3,963 arrivals, while the United Kingdom, 3,926, Germany, 3,469, Australia 2,891 and Russian Federation, 2,729 followed.

Many tourism related stakeholders opined that with the peaceful manner in which the Presidential election was held they expect a slimier outcome for the general elections as well. “This in turn will not dampen the arrival patterns and Sri Lanka will achieve the best arrival figure in its tourism history by the end of 2024 surpassing the all time best of 2,333,796 achieved in 2018.”