Sri Lanka tourist arrivals top 2.3 million in 2018

March, 18, 2019

Sri Lanka’s Central Bank statistics outlines that tourist arrivals recorded a growth of 3.5% in December 2018, resulting in a total of 2.3 million arrivals during 2018, compared to 2.1 million arrivals in 2017.

 

Further tourist arrivals from all major regions, except East Asia and the Middle East, increased in 2018. Meanwhile, India remained as the leading source country for tourist arrivals in 2018, while China remained the second largest origin, though with a marginal decline, followed by the UK, Germany, and Australia.

 

Statistics further point out with the growth in tourist arrivals, and an increase in estimated average spending by tourists, earnings from tourism recorded a healthy growth of 11.6% during 2018 reaching over US $ 4.38 billion.

- Reporting by Devendra Francis