Sri Lanka's tourism industry reached a key milestone on Saturday, welcoming its one millionth tourist for 2024. Patricia Roe and her husband Paul, from Ireland, arrived on June 29 on UL 504 from London.
This is their first visit to the island nation, according to the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau (SLTPB).
The couple, who will be touring Sri Lanka for three weeks starting from Trincomalee, received a ceremonial welcome at Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake.
"This visit indicates a positive outlook for Sri Lanka in terms of future tourist arrivals," the SLTPB said in a statement.
"As Sri Lanka Tourism gets closer to its target of over two million tourist arrivals for this year, this can be considered another successful result of our promotional efforts, boosting revenue as the third-largest foreign exchange earner in the country."
According to the latest arrival data from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), Sri Lanka welcomed 91,666 international visitors from June 1 to 25. The authority set a target of 148,695 tourist arrivals for June, which is unlikely to be met with the daily arrival average around 3,666.
However, the 100,000 mark for June was crossed on June 27, and Sri Lanka is likely to end the month with about 109,000 to 110,000 international visitors.
