First five months’ tourist arrivals cross 1 m mark

• Tourist arrivals up 6.2% in May
• India, China, the UK continue as top sourcing markets 
• Asia and Pacific largest source of tourist traffic to SL with 65% of total received

 By Charumini de Silva

Tourist arrivals during the first five months exceeded one million, reflecting a 14.7% growth, while May saw a 6.2% growth to 129,466 from the comparable period of last year. 

According to data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), tourist arrivals in May amounted to 129,466, up 6.2% from 121,891 in the corresponding month of 2017.  The cumulative arrivals of tourists in the five months rose 14.7% to 1,017,819 compared to 887,093 in the same period last year, continuing the growth momentum kick-started this year. 

India continued to be the largest source market in May with 42,073 arrivals, up by 23.1%. 

China came in second with 17,103, but the figure is down 7.5% compared to a year earlier. Arrivals from the UK were the third largest at 9,337, up 9.6%. Other major markets included Germany (up 8.7% to 6,906), Australia (up 28.1% to 4,873), Japan (up 48.5% to 4,229 and the US (up 24% to 4,123). France was down 0.4% to 3,721.

Asia-Pacific was the largest source of tourist traffic to Sri Lanka with 65% of the total received in May 2018. Europe accounted for 27%, America 6%, the Middle East 2 % and Africa 0.5%. 

Earnings from tourism in March were estimated at $ 433 million, with cumulative earnings amounting to $ 1,313 million during the first quarter of 2018, according to data released by the Central Bank last week. 

Tourist arrivals increased by 24.1% in March as a result of higher numbers of tourists arriving from India, the United Kingdom and Germany in comparison to March 2017. Total tourist arrivals during the first quarter of 2018 at 707,924 were a 17% increase over the first quarter of 2017.

The much awaited and crucial multi-platform CNN global promotion campaign for Sri Lanka tourism also went live at the end of May.

This was following the agreement for the three-month CNN global campaign being signed on 24 May.

A spokesman for Sri Lanka Tourism said three three-minute videos depicting the ‘Great Big Story’ portraying Sri Lanka as Asia’s diverse, authentic and compact destination will be exclusively promoted through social media on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.  

In addition, there will be another two videos which are 60-second vacations on CNN TV International. Both of these will be done by the CNN Editorial.

The Great Big Story is expected to bring in 800,000 views on social media.

The campaign will reach across the globe through multiple platforms.