Tourist arrivals and earnings continue to decline in May

Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka continued to decline, with the first half of May recording fewer than 60,000 arrivals, while the daily average arrival figure fell below 3,900 for the first time in many years.

Correspondingly, tourism earnings also declined. Revenue from the industry amounted to US dollars 157.1 million in April 2026, compared to US dollars 223.7 million in March 2026 and US dollars 256.7 million in April 2025.

The only positive development was China moving up to become the second largest source market after India.

From January 1 to May 15, India remained the leading source market with 213,626 visitors, followed by the United Kingdom with 92,004 arrivals, the Russian Federation with 74,875, China with 63,141, Germany with 61,193 and France with 47,048 visitors.

Total tourist arrivals up to May 15 stood at 934,587, compared to over one million arrivals recorded during the corresponding period last year.

The Tourist Hotels Association said that no international destination marketing campaign had been carried out during the past 15 years despite the availability of Rs. 14 billion in funds, adding that this had become a major setback in attracting international travellers to Sri Lanka.