Foreign tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka edged down 0.26% year-on-year to 158,557 in September 2026, following a 3.3% decline in August. This was the sixth month of year-on-year contraction so far in 2026, even though total arrivals for the first nine months of the year reached 1,693,679.
India remained the leading source market, contributing 32.0% of total arrivals with 51,931 visitors. China was the second-largest source with 11,722 visitors (7.0%), closely followed by Australia with 10,951 (7.0%). The United Kingdom ranked fourth with 10,738 visitors, while Germany followed with 7,277.
Despite the recent softening in monthly numbers, total arrivals were still 6.4% higher than in the same period of 2018, prior to the pandemic’s disruption of international travel.
In response to weakening visitor inflows, Sri Lanka revised its 2026 tourism targets, cutting its projected tourist arrivals to 2.7 million from 3 million and lowering its tourism revenue goal to $4.2 billion from $5 billion.
