Sri Lanka achieves 200,000 tourist arrival milestone in December
Tourists taking a stroll down Arugambay beach
Over the weekend, Sri Lanka achieved a significant milestone as tourist arrivals surpassed the 200,000 mark, marking the first instance of the country reaching this monthly milestone since the onset of the pandemic.
“Tourist arrivals passed 200,000 in December. It is the highest arrival figure for the last four years, in one month total arrivals will be almost close to 1.5 million which was the original target set in Jan 2023,” Tourism Minister Harin Fernando said in an update on X, formerly Twitter.
Provisional data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) showed that for the first 28 days of December, the island nation welcomed a total of 189,505 international visitors.
Accordingly, the daily arrival average has increased to 6,768, whereas the weekly average stands at 47,376.
Industry stakeholders shared that Sri Lanka is seeing an improved occupancy rate, especially at beach hotels across the island and the cultural triangle.
However, a notable drop is seen in the occupancy in Colombo city hotels. Industry stakeholders attributed the drop to the imposed Minimum Room Rate (MRR). While the leisure segment is seeing a surge, the MICE segment is witnessing a slowdown, which the industry said is due to the MRR.
India continues to retain its position as the largest source market for Sri Lanka tourism, bringing in 21 percent of the total tourism arrivals for the month so far. The Russian Federation, ranking second, accounted for 14 percent of the total arrivals, while the United Kingdom, the third largest tourist traffic generator, contributed 9 percent.
The SLTDA aims to lure 242,135 international visitors in December, and end the year with 1.55 million tourists.
However, analysis of the rate of tourist arrivals shows that the targets will be marginally missed.
