The tourist arrivals to the island nation for the first two weeks of October crossed the 50,000 mark, the provisional data from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority showed. Between October 01 and October 15, Sri Lanka received 50,395 international visitors, contributing to a cumulative total of 1,066,651 arrivals for the first 10 months ending on October 15.
The arrival target set for October by the tourism authorities is 147,789 and 34 percent of it has been realised so far. The daily arrival average for the month has improved to 3,359 when compared with the arrival rate of the previous week. With the arrivals recorded for the first 15 days of October, 68 percent of the arrival target set for 2023 has been fulfilled.
Just as the previous months, India ranked as the largest tourist traffic generator for Sri Lanka tourism, accounting for 24 percent of the total arrivals, with 12,261 visitors. Ranking second is the Russian Federation, contributing to 9 percent, with 4,554 arrivals, followed by the United Kingdom, accounting for 8 percent of the total arrivals, with 4,008 international visitors. The other key markets included China, Germany, Australia, the Maldives, United States, Spain, and the Netherlands.