Courtesy The Daily Mirror

PIC BY NISAL BADUGE

• Daily arrival average improves to 2,500
• Weekly arrival average improves to 16,000
• If current momentum is maintained, December could end with about 75,000 tourists

The tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka for the first 20 days of December have crossed 50,000, indicating a significant improvement in tourism activities.

The provisional data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority showed that for the December 01 to 20 period, a total of 50,375 international visitors entered the country. This brings the total tourist arrivals for the year so far (January 01- December 20)
to 678,392.

Accordingly, the daily arrival average improved to 2,518. In the previous months, the daily arrival average was below 2,200.

Analysis of the weekly arrival numbers shows that for the first 20 days, the tourist arrivals were above 16,000 for the first three weeks of the month.

In the first week (December 01-07), the tourist arrivals reached 16,169, whereas in the second week (December 08 -14), the arrivals totalled 16,418. In the first five days of the third week (December 15-20), the tourist arrivals reached 17,788.

If the current pace of tourist arrivals can be maintained, Sri Lanka could end the month of December with about 75,000 tourist arrivals, which will mean the tourism sector has somewhat improved to what it was before the economic and political crisis in the country that escalated in April. The Russian Federation continues to remain as the largest tourist traffic generator for destination Sri Lanka, accounting for 22 percent of the total tourist arrivals for the first 20 days of December.

Ranking second is India, contributing to 18 percent of the total tourist traffic and in the third place is the United Kingdom, bringing in 9 percent of the total tourists
to the country.

The other notable markets include Australia, Germany and the
United States.