Minister of Foreign Affairs and Tourism Vijitha Herath told Parliament on Tuesday that Sri Lanka’s tourism revenues have not declined and that the apparent dip in headline figures reflects a shift to internationally accepted survey methods, not a fall in visitor spending.
Responding to questions raised by MP Ravi Karunanayake under Standing Order 27(2), the minister said earlier survey techniques relied on limited samples which artificially inflated revenue figures, whereas the current methodology reveals the real spending patterns of foreign visitors.
He stressed that tourists’ spending habits in Sri Lanka have not changed significantly, and that what has occurred is simply the correction of previously flawed data.
Karunanayake, raising a supplementary question, pointed out that credit card payments made by tourists often bypass the on-the-ground survey mechanism, leaving open the question of how the new methodology accounts for digital and non-cash spending in particular.
The minister’s framing — that the published numbers were too high before, not that they are too low now — is consistent with the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority’s revised April 2026 reporting that showed average per-tourist spending and total April receipts well below previous projections, and with the services balance flipping to a US$229 million deficit that was largely attributed to a sharp tourism revenue revision.
The minister also pointed to a series of months in which arrivals have come in below earlier industry projections, including a second consecutive monthly fall in May to 135,643 tourists, even as cumulative arrivals crossed the one-million mark by late May.
Tuesday’s statement is the first time a sitting minister has publicly framed the recent tourism revenue numbers as a measurement-methodology issue rather than a fundamental demand-side problem — a politically significant pivot ahead of the rest of the 2026 winter inbound season.
