Tourism earnings surpass $ 800 m in first five months

• May earnings at $ 827.8 m reflect 30.4% growth over same period in 2022
• Tourism Minister Harin Fernando admires industry progress

By Charumini de Silva

The tourism industry has managed to rebound with earnings exceeding $ 800 million along with the boost in arrivals in 2023.

Tourism earnings in the first five months of 2023 were at $ 827.8 million, reflecting a 30.4% increase from the corresponding period of last year, whilst May earnings stood at $ 131.5 million, the latest Central Bank data released showed.

However, compared to the past four months, May recorded the lowest income so far in 2023, as it is a traditional low arrivals month. At the end of last month, Sri Lanka received a total of 83,309 tourists surpassing its target of 75,989 and recording a year-on-year growth of 176%.

“The industry has recovered admirably, and it has made a greater contribution to the economic recovery as well,” Tourism Minister Harin Fernando told the Daily FT.

Arrivals in the first five months amounted to 524,486 (as against 378,521 in crisis-hit 2022) – a welcome development for the triple-hit tourism industry, but performance is still down by 48% compared to the same period in the benchmark year 2018.

Sri Lanka lost over $ 10 billion in foreign exchange earnings, which generate over $ 4.3 billion annually, due to the pandemic during the past two years.