FINANCIAL CHRONICLE – According to the central bank, Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange earnings from tourism experienced a significant decline of 38.8 percent in April 2026, totaling US$157.1 million, as reported by data from the tourism promotion authority.
This decrease follows a 37 percent drop in March’s tourism revenue, coinciding with the onset of U.S./Israeli military actions in Iran on February 28. For the first four months of 2026, overall tourism revenue decreased by 19.4 percent, amounting to US$1.111 billion, down from US$1.379 billion during the same period in the previous year.
Officials have indicated that the tourism revenue has been on a downward trend since August of the previous year, attributed to a revision in the estimated daily expenditure per tourist. The monthly revenue has declined in eight of the last ten months, with only brief increases in September and October following drops in July and August.
Tourism revenue, which constitutes approximately 3 percent of Sri Lanka’s economy, fell in April in conjunction with a 22.3 percent decrease in tourist arrivals, which stood at 135,643 compared to the previous year, despite it being the peak tourist season.
The Sri Lankan government has set an ambitious goal of attracting 3 million visitors and generating US$4 billion in tourism revenue by 2026. In 2025, the country recorded US$3.22 billion in tourism earnings, marking a modest increase of 1.6 percent from US$3.17 billion in 2024. Moreover, tourist arrivals surged by 15.1 percent in 2025, with the total number of international visitors reaching a record 2,362,521, compared to 2,053,465 the year before.
At its peak in 2018, tourism contributed nearly 5 percent to Sri Lanka’s economy; however, the sector has faced several challenges since then, including the devastating Easter Sunday bombings in 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, and a subsequent severe economic crisis.
The reported earnings from tourism are derived from a survey conducted by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. The daily spending per tourist has decreased from US$171 to US$148 since last August, reflecting the findings of a recent survey.
As tourism revenues have started to flow in, Sri Lanka’s imports and merchandise trade deficit have gradually increased, driven by the spending of wages and other earnings within the tourism sector. (Colombo/May 17/2026)
