July tourism revenue rises 3% to $328m

Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange revenue from tourism in July 2025 rose 3.1 percent from a year ago to 328.3 million US dollars, the central bank said quoting tourism promotion authority data.

Revenue for the first seven months up to July was 2.03 billion US dollars rising 7.8 percent from a year ago.

Sri Lanka’s new government has aimed at an ambitious 5 billion dollar revenue and a 3 million arrival targets this year.

The island nation witnessed 3.17 billion dollar revenue in 2024, with a 53.2 percent jump compared to 2.07 billion dollars in the previous year, the data showed.

The arrivals also have picked up 14.8 percent in the first seven months of 2025 compared to the same period last year with the number of foreign visitors to Sri Lanka rising to 1,368,288 in the period compared to last year’s 1,198,059.

The arrivals jumped 38.1 percent to 2.05 million in 2024 compared to the previous year. Sri Lanka missed its ambitious 2.3 million tourist arrival target and 5 billion dollar revenue goal in 2024.