Sri Lanka’s tourism investments soar to $ 25 million in Q1
Daily FT: Tourism Deputy Minister Prof. Ruwan Ranasinghe recently pointed to growing investor confidence in the country’s tourism sector, noting that investments have already reached $ 25 million in the first quarter of 2025 — more than half of the total $ 40 million recorded in 2024.
Speaking to journalists, he highlighted significant untapped investment potential in areas such as the Kalpitiya islands, Kuchchaveli, and the southern coastal belt.
Sri Lanka’s tourism industry continues to build momentum in 2025, with over 56,000 arrivals in the first nine days of April alone — a 12% increase compared to the same period last year. As per the latest provisional data, a total of 56,567 tourists was registered during the first nine days of April, pushing the cumulative arrivals for the year to 778,843 and marking a robust 13.5% year-on-year (YoY) growth.
OSL take:
Sri Lanka’s tourism industry has become one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the country while generating most of the revenue for the state coffers. The increasing investor interest, especially among international leisure and hospitality brands, in Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is indicative of the growing business potential in the industry. With Sri Lanka being identified as the ‘new Bali’ in Asia and a must visit tourist destination, there has been an expansion in the business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka’s tourism industry. Given that local tourism authorities are on the lookout to further expand tourism concepts promoted by the country, the expanding of these concepts has added to the existing business/investment opportunities. Among these opportunities are the development of infrastructure and supplementary infrastructure facilities required to meet the increasing demand. Also, the expansion in the local tourism industry has in-turn resulted in the need for expansion in the airport and aviation sectors as well. The need to develop Sri Lanka’s airport and aviation sectors to meet the increasing demand of the local tourism industry have also presented many business/investment opportunities in these sectors for foreign businesses/investors to take on.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20250418/Z_10 |