During the 12-month period, January-December 2018, the most number of tourists visited the country in December (253,169), followed by January (238,924) and February (235,618) according to Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) sources.
However, December 2018 recorded a slower growth compared to December 2017, with an increase of 3.5 per cent in the number of tourist arrivals. March is considered as the best performing month in terms of growth (24.1%).
October posted the lowest growth, 0.5 per cent owing to the political instability in the country which resulted in many countries issuing travel warnings on Sri Lanka. A massive number of cancellation of bookings was also seen during the last two months of last year.
India (424,887), China (265,965) and United Kingdom (254,176) were the top three markets for Sri Lanka tourism last year. One significant observation is the drop of Chinese tourists for the third consecutive year where 271,577 and 268,952 Chinese tourist arrivals were reported in 2016 and 2017. In December 2018, several tourist generating countries (to Sri Lanka) including India, China, South Korea, Australia, and the Maldives logged a negative performance. However, growth in the UK, German, French and Russian markets helped to secure a 3.5 percent growth last December.
Sri Lanka attracted 2.1 million international tourists in 2017.