The tourism arrivals in June has almost doubled to 63,072 from 37,802 in May, though 57% lower compared to the previous year, and year to date performance remains negative.

According to the latest data released by the Sri Lanka tourism development authority arrivals in June was down by 57% from the corresponding month of last year. In May, arrivals were only 37,802, lower by 71% from the previous year.

June numbers were lowest for the year as against the average of 240-250,000 in the first quarter of this year. In April, arrivals were down 7.5% to 167,000.

First half arrivals amounted to 1 million, down by 13.4% from a year earlier.

According to SLTDA, till June, 1,008,449 tourists visited Sri Lanka, out of which over 97,000 tourists were from China.

The other top markets for Sri Lanka Tourism were India, Australia, Britain and the Maldives.