Sri Lanka surpassed two million tourist arrivals for 2025, a key milestone marked by the arrival of two French travellers at Bandaranaike International Airport yesterday. With India remaining the leading source market, supported by steady inflows from the UK, Russia, Germany and China, tourism authorities are hopeful of ending above 2.3 million arrivals this year.

Till 12th November, over 4.43 lakh Indian tourists have visited the island nation this year, which translates to 22.5 per cent of all tourist arrivals. Sri Lanka had set a target of 2.5 million arrivals for 2025, following 2,053,465 arrivals recorded in 2024, its strongest performance since the pandemic. The latest achievement underscores the vital role of tourism in stabilising the economy, especially as the country continues to recover from the crippling economic crisis of 2022.