MONETABRIEF – Sri Lanka's tourist arrivals in August 2026 were down 3.3 percent from a year as the Indian Ocean nation as the sector struggles to show growth in the wake of the US-Iran war.
Arrivals in April fell 22 percent, and has since shown a recovery.
Indian arrivals at 47,253 were up from 46,473, UK arrivals at 19,588 were slightlyh from from 19,764 and German visitors at 11,405 was also slightly down from 12,500.
Chinese arrivals 12,231 was marginally up from 12,294. France was up 10,885 from 10,495.
But Italians were down 8,882 from 12,247.
Sri Lanka revised the tourism arrival target to 2.5 million from 3.0 million for 2026 after the Middle East war.
Last year Sri Lanka welcomed 3.6 million tourists.(Colombo/Sept04/2026 <-p>