Sri Lanka recorded 196,845 foreign tourist arrivals in July 2026, a 1.7 percent decline on the same month last year, according to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA).
The figure compares with 200,244 arrivals in July 2025. It is a far shallower fall than the one recorded a month earlier: arrivals were down 9.9 percent year-on-year in June, EconomyNext reported, leaving first-half arrivals at 1,146,573 against 1,168,044 in the first six months of 2025.
India remained the largest source market by a wide margin, with 44,547 arrivals — roughly 23 percent of the monthly total. The United Kingdom was second on 21,834, followed by the Netherlands on 12,493, China on 12,336 and France on 10,102.
Cumulative arrivals for the year to July 31 reached 1,343,418, the SLTDA said.
The month closed stronger than the mid-month run rate implied. Sri Lanka had logged 138,730 arrivals in the first three and a half weeks of July, meaning roughly 58,000 visitors arrived in the closing days of the month.
Tourism is one of Sri Lanka’s largest sources of foreign exchange, and the monthly arrival series is watched closely as a gauge of the sector’s recovery. July falls within the peak season for European travel to the island, making a year-on-year decline in the month a more significant signal than the headline percentage suggests.
The SLTDA has not published a breakdown of the reasons for the July shortfall.
