By Keishara Perera Sri Lanka’s tourist arrivals rose 13.8 percent year-on-year (YoY) to 140,319 in August2014, with Germany, the United Kingdom and Chinaleading the list, the data released by the country’s tourism authority showed.
Arrivals in the first eight months of the year were up 23.1 percent YoY to 1,001,643. Chinese arrivals, which include Hong Kong and Macau, rose 139.9 percent YoY to 14,274, whilearrivals from India stood at 17,912, down 5.7 percent.Arrivals from the UK grew just 0.1 percent YoY to 15,532.
From the East Asian region, arrivals from Japan were up 6.9 percent to 5,233, Malaysia grew marginally 1.4 percent to 1,542 and the Philippines grew 4.6 percent to 949. Tourist arrivals from Eastern Europe grew 26.6 percent to 6,979 arrivals during the month under review, of which, 3,246 were Russians visiting the country, up 36.4 percent from a year earlier.
Ukraine was down 24.2 percent to 1,109 and the Czech Republic up 66.8 percent to 614. The data suggested that during the month in consideration, Sri Lanka witnessed an increase inarrivals from the German market as well. The German market showed an increase of 29.4 percent to 10,364.
From the same region, France was up 15 percent YoY to 8,746, Switzerland, down 5.6 percent to 1,030, Austria down 8.7 percent t o 758 and t he Netherlands up 14 percent to 2,490. The North American region, which includes Canada and the USA, showed an increase in arrivals from 5,729 in August 2013 to 5,965 during 2014, although arrivals from the USA declined 4.7 percent YoY to 2,648.
From the Middle East, arrivals from Saudi Arabia rose 13.7 percent YoY to 6,653, Kuwait 14.3 percent to 1,894, Oman 194.5 percent to 3,852. Tourist arrivals from the UAE and Israel were down 2.5 percent and 31.3 percent, respectively to 2,551 and 761. Sri Lanka Tourism follows the UN standard of defining a tourist as “a person who stays at least one night in a country and does not exceed his stay period for more than 12 months.” Sri Lanka recently welcomed its one millionth tourist and hopes to attract 1.5 million tourists end of this year and 2.5 million by 2016.
Sri Lanka Travel Feneteko