Sri Lanka received 158,557 tourists in September 2026, a fall of 0.26 per cent from the 158,971 recorded in September 2025, according to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA). The figures come from the authority’s weekly report covering 1 to 30 September.
Source Markets
India was the largest source of visitors in September, with 51,931 arrivals, or 32.0 per cent of the total. China followed with 11,722, then Australia with 10,951, the United Kingdom with 10,738 and Germany with 7,277, which the report shows as 5.0 per cent of arrivals. Japan (5,387), France (4,876), the Maldives (4,230), Bangladesh (4,220) and Spain (3,430) completed the authority’s top ten for the month.
For the first nine months of the year, the SLTDA’s top-twenty table lists India first with 437,414 arrivals, followed by the United Kingdom (160,727), China (112,550), Germany (97,278) and Australia (86,989).
The Year So Far
Cumulative arrivals from January to September 2026 totalled 1,693,679, according to the report. The authority’s monthly table shows a mixed pattern against 2025: March arrivals were 183,979, down 19.7 per cent, and April arrivals were 135,643, down 22.3 per cent, while May rose 9.65 per cent to 145,745. June (down 9.9 per cent), July (down 1.7 per cent) and August (down 3.3 per cent) were all lower than a year earlier. Adding the SLTDA’s own monthly 2025 figures for January to September gives 1,725,494, which would put the 2026 total about 1.8 per cent lower; that is our calculation from the authority’s table rather than a figure it states.
Why It Matters
September’s near-flat result, set against a year-to-date total that is somewhat behind 2025, suggests that Sri Lanka’s tourism has been broadly flat rather than accelerating. The concentration of arrivals from India, which supplied roughly a third of September’s visitors, means the month’s outcome depends heavily on one market. The authority’s October and November figures will show whether the shortfall narrows.
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