More than 100,000 tourists visit Sri Lanka in first 15 days of 2024

Over 100,000 tourists have arrived in Sri Lanka in the first 15 days of 2024, according to the latest statistics released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA).

The SLTDA weekly report on tourist arrivals, released on Tuesday (16), shows that 101,362 international visitors have arrived in the above period, and this is a 114 percent increase, compared to the corresponding period in 2023.

Only 102,545 international tourists visited Sri Lanka in January 2023, according to SLTDA data.

The SLTDA has said the weekly tourist arrival average is about 46,000 and the daily arrival average 6,700 international tourists.

Speaking to the local media on the increase in arrivals, SLTDA Chairman Priantha Fernando said there had also been a significant increase in revenue and this is mainly due to the reimposed Minimum Room Rate (MRR) for Colombo city hotels.

Sri Lanka received 1,487,303 tourists in 2023, an increase of 106.6 percent from 2022, according to SLTDA data.

In 2022, Sri Lanka received 719,978 tourists for the whole year, the SLTDA data showed.

 Tourism is one of the country’s top foreign revenue generators. (RK)