Sri Lanka’s tourism earnings saw a 8.1% decline in earnings in year-on-year terms in the month of November, posting $ 251.6 million in earnings, data from the External Sector Performance for November 2025, recorded by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) shows.
Sri Lanka earned $ 272.9 million in November of 2024, $ 21.3 million higher than earnings posted this year. In the month of November, the country endured catastrophic weather conditions brought on by cyclone Ditwah, which saw torrential rainfall, severe flooding and landslides.
Conversely, arrivals in November saw a 15% increase from the previous month’s arrivals, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) data shows. Sri Lanka missed its ambitious tourism earnings target of $ 5 billion for 2025, by $ 2.5 billion.
According to the CBSL report, Sea and Air Transport Services also decreased by 20.8% in November 2025, in comparison to the same period in 2024, down by roughly $ 29.3 million.
Tourism foreign exchange earnings saw a declining trend in the months of July and August last year. According to SLTDA weekly data, arrivals in the first week of December, during cyclone Ditwah, saw a dip from the arrivals recorded in the last week of November (23-30), which saw 56,267 arrivals, to 43,976 arrivals between 1 and 7 December.
Sri Lanka Tourism Chairperson Buddhika Hewawasam told the media yesterday (1) that 2026 is to see continued momentum, with the same target of 3 million tourist arrivals, however with a revised target for expected. “We look forward to end 2025 with around 2.35 million arrivals and a revenue in the range of $3 to 4 billion,” Hewawasam said.
Sri Lanka’s tourism target of 3 million tourist arrivals was not achieved during the year, recording 2.3 million tourist arrivals in 2025. It was also unable to reach its tourism arrivals target in 2024, falling short of roughly 250,000 arrivals of its 2.6 million. However, Sri Lanka saw $ 3.17 billion in tourism revenue in 2024, up from the $ 2.07 billion revenue earned in 2023.
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