Tourist arrivals top 1.3 m, but July set to miss monthly goal
- CNL Reporter
- July 28, 2025
- Travel and Tourism
- tourist arrivals
- 0 Comments
Sri Lanka’s tourism industry has crossed the 1.3 million mark in arrivals for 2025, reflecting a steady year-on-year (YoY) growth, but the latest data point to the country falling short of its monthly target for July.
As per the latest data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), during the first 23 days of July, a total of 145,188 tourists visited the country, pushing the year-to-date (YTD) figure to 1,313,232 arrivals, a 4% YoY increase.
Average daily arrivals also stood at 6,313, up from 6,084 visitors in the same period last year. However, with an ambitious target of 3 million arrivals and $ 5 billion in revenue set for the year, the country must attract over 1.67 million (1,686,768) tourists or nearly 56.2% of the full-year goal over the remaining months of 2025.
The SLTDA projects 277,195 arrivals for the month of July, but only 145,188 visitors were welcomed and the country now needs to draw in an additional 132,007 travellers over the remaining 2 days of the month—an average of 16,501 arrivals per day—which is a steep challenge even with the Kandy Esala Perahera, which is set to take the streets from Wednesday (30).
