Sri Lanka’s Tourism Development Minister John Amaratunga has said that yet again Sri Lanka’s tourist arrival target of 2.5 million tourists for year 2018 fallen short as a result of the political upheaval experienced post-26 October. Sri Lanka had repeatedly missed the 2.5 million arrival target since 2016, however Amaratunga is highly optimistic that Sri Lanka will receive 4 million tourists and generate an income of over US $ 5 billion by the end of 2019 according to reports. “We have fallen slightly short of the 2.5 million tourist arrivals target for last year, although we had increased number of visitors towards the last few weeks of December. This year’s target was missed mainly due to the political instability we saw post-26 October. However, I think in terms of earnings we have reached the US $ 3.5 billion target,” Amaratunga had told reporters recently. The Minister had said that if not for the political upheaval, Sri Lanka would have reached its arrival target during the peak season, with the country also being ranked number one tourist destination in 2019 by Lonely Planet. In 2017, Sri Lanka recorded its all-time high of 2,116,407 tourist arrivals in 2017, posting marginal growth of 3.2%, while tourism revenue rose by a similar percentage to an all-time peak of US $ 3.63 billion according to reports. As per the latest available data tourist arrivals in the first 11 months rose by 11% to 2.08 million, whilst earnings from tourism in September rose 2.8% to US $ 276 million year-on-year, with cumulative earnings amounting to US $ 3.2 billion, posting 11.2% growth during the first nine months of 2018.
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