(FT) Tourist arrival numbers struggle in Nov.

Tourist arrivals rose marginally by 0.2% in November this year compared to the same period last year, surpassing 1.8 million arrivals for the year, data released yesterday by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) revealed.

The month recorded 167,511 tourists arriving in the country compared to the 167,217 who arrived in November 2016.

In the first 11 months of this year, 1,871,871 tourists visited the island compared to the 1,826,041 who visited in November 2016, recording an overall increase of 2.5%. Arrivals from North America rose significantly by 14.5% to 7,635 in November and arrivals from Canada rose 22.3% to 2,992 during the month while arrivals from the US increased by 9.9% to 4,643.

Tourist arrivals from Western Europe declined for the second consecutive month by 1.4%, reaching 45,903 during the month from the 46,565 tourists who arrived in the same month last year. Most of the tourists came from the UK (13,634) and Germany (9,891). Tourist arrivals from Germany and France decreased by 11.5% and 4.6% respectively while 2.2% more tourists arrived from the UK.

Arrivals from Eastern Europe declined 12.3% with the arrival of 18,636 tourists in November 2017. Tourist arrivals from Russia dropped by 7.1% while 24% fewer tourists arrived from Ukraine. Tourist arrivals from the Middle East declined 30.4% with 5,066 visitors.

Tourist arrivals from East Asia increased 14.2% as 36,087 visited the country. Arrivals from China increased 3.5% with 19,237 tourists arriving in the country in November 2017.

Arrivals from South Asia in the month declined 2.7% with 45,061 tourists visiting the island. Of those who arrived from South Asia, 32,243 were from India corresponding to an increase of 6.9%.

Earnings from tourism grew by 2.9%, year-on-year, to an estimated $ 2.66 billion in the first nine months of 2017, according to the Central Bank.

Nearly 1.8 million tourists arrived in Sri Lanka last year contributing $ 2.86 billion in earnings to the Government. Sri Lanka’s Tourism Authority has set a target of 2.5 million tourist arrivals this year.

Source: DailyFT