In the first 20 days of August, Sri Lanka witnessed a significant influx of tourists, with a total of 98,831 arrivals, according to provisional data from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority.
This indicates an average daily arrival of 4,941, suggesting that the country would have welcomed over 103,000 tourists by August 21.
The tourism industry in Sri Lanka has set a target of attracting 149,075 tourists for the entire month of August.
With the current performance, the country has already exceeded the 100,000 arrivals mark in seven out of the eight months this year, with the exception being May when international visitors totaled 83,390.
As of August 20, the cumulative tourist arrivals for the first eight months of the year stood at 866,744. Analyzing the breakdown of arrivals in August, during the first week (August 1-7),
Sri Lanka welcomed 35,775 international visitors. The second week (August 8-14) saw an increase in arrivals to 37,890. However, the number of tourist arrivals dropped to 25,166 in the first six days of the third week.
India has emerged as the leading source market for Sri Lanka's tourism industry, accounting for 20 percent of the overall tourist arrivals during the 20-day period, which translates to 19,804 international visitors. The United Kingdom ranks second, contributing 12 percent of the tourists (12,188), followed by China in third place, with 7 percent of the arrivals and 6,964 visitors.
