Sri Lanka’s tourism sector earnings were estimated at US $2,380 million during the first eight months of 2019 compared to US $2,971 million during the corresponding period of 2018,  latest External Sector Performance report of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka outlines.

Earnings from tourism were estimated at US $ 270 million in August 2019, in comparison to US $ 376 million in August 2018.

Tourist arrivals rose steadily recovering from the impact of the Easter Sunday attacks.

Accordingly, arrivals increased by 24.1% to 143,587 in August 2019 from 115,701 in July 2019.

Meanwhile, the year-on-year decline of arrivals narrowed to 28.3% in August 2019 compared to the drop of 46.9% in July and 57% in June 2019.