Sri Lanka achieved a significant milestone by welcoming 100,388 tourists in June 2023, the first time in four years that arrivals crossed the 100,000 mark in the month of June, it was reported.
India emerged as the biggest source market to date after finally toppling Russia from the top spot.
According to Daily FT, the boost in arrivals was largely influenced by Indian travellers following the successful series of roadshows conducted in select cities of India over the past couple of months by Sri Lanka Tourism authorities.
India topped the tourist traffic to Sri Lanka in June with 26,830 visitors, followed by the United Kingdom with 7,981 visitors, Russia with 7,968 visitors, Australia with 6,195 visitors, and China with 5,105 visitors.
Additionally, tourists from Germany, Canada, Maldives, the United States, and France also visited Sri Lanka in June.
China, which saw a slow start due to COVID travel restrictions after three years, also made a strong comeback as it made it to Sri Lanka’s top five source markets in June.
Despite arrivals in the first six months amounting to 624,874, performance is still down by 46% compared to the same period in the benchmark year 2018.
Sri Lanka aims to achieve its set target of two million arrivals by the end of the year and the industry anticipates over 1.4 million tourists within the next six months, with the stakeholders expressing optimism about accomplishing this target.
Several international airlines, including Air China, Qatar Airways, and Turkish Airlines, have also recommenced operations or increased flight frequencies to Sri Lanka boosting the tourism industry. (NewsWire)
