Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka were up by 11.8 percent to 186, 288 in August from a year ago with India, China and the United Kingdom leading the pack while the total arrivals too rose by 16 percent to 1, 359,906 during the first eight months.
While the earnings for the same period have still not been published, the sector has brought in US $ 1.9 billion for the first seven months, the Central Bank data released last week showed.
Sri Lanka targets 2.2 million arrivals this year but the portfolio minister is confident of even surpassing the number to a record 2.5 million tourists in 2016.
Arrivals from Sri Lanka’s top source market, India, rose by 3.7 percent to 24, 418 in August from a year ago while the eight months showed 224, 924 arrivals, recording an increase of 16.1 percent from a year ago.
Arrivals from the fastest growing source market, China, moderated to 11.3 percent year-on-year (yoy) to 27, 519. During the first eight months there have been 190, 992 arrivals from China, up 32.2 percent from the same period, last year.
Source : http://epaper.dailymirror.lk/epaper/viewer.aspx
Sri Lanka Travel Feneteko