Sri Lanka’s tourism sector generated US$ 2,245.2 million in revenue from January to September 2026, according to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. This figure represents a 9.2% decline compared to US$ 2,472.9 million recorded during the same period in 2025.
The number of tourists arriving in Sri Lanka in the first nine months of 2026 totaled 1,693,679, reflecting a 1.8% decrease compared to the corresponding period last year.
Tourism earnings showed signs of short-term recovery with revenue in September 2026 reaching US$ 185.6 million, a 1.5% increase over September 2025’s US$ 182.9 million. August earnings also rose by 2.1%
year-on-year to US$ 264.4 million. Despite the growth in earnings, tourist arrivals declined slightly by 0.3% in September.
In August 2026, the Government of Sri Lanka revised its tourism sector targets, increasing the projected annual tourist arrivals from 2.5 million to 2.7 million and raising the expected tourism revenue from US$ 3.5 billion to US$ 4.2 billion.
To meet the elevated annual revenue target of US$ 4.2 billion, Sri Lanka needs to generate about US$ 1.96 billion in tourism income during the final quarter of 2026. This requires an average monthly revenue of approximately US$ 653 million from October through
December. By comparison, total tourism revenue for 2025 was US$ 3.22 billion, with 2.36 million tourists recorded that year.
The tourism sector’s recent performance has been influenced by geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and revisions to tourism expenditure estimates, which have complicated annual comparisons. Despite the declines in arrivals and revenue through September 2026, the government’s increased targets indicate confidence in a sector recovery.
