Tourist arrivals have further increased by 10.1% in May 2016 as against the previous year. May arrivals recorded 125,044 compared to the 113,529 arrived in May 2015.

India remained the biggest source of visitors, up 7.9% to 34,259 in May 2016 from a year ago and up 21.9% in the five months to May.The Chinese domination in the market was once again maintaned with the number of visitors going up 31.5% to 16,004 in May 2016 from a year ago according to the Tourism Development Authority data and remains Sri Lanka’s fastest growing tourism market.

In the first five months Chinese tourists visiting the island, including those from Hong Kong, were up 42.7% to 112,890 in the five months to may 2016 from the same period last year, the fastest growth of all tourism markets.

Arrivals from traditional markets like the United Kingdom, Germany and France also showed double-digit growth rates in the five month period but visitors from Russia fell.

Arrivals from South Asia in the month increased by 11.0 percent with 47,120 tourists visiting the island. Of those arrived from South Asia, 34,259 were from India corresponding to an increase of 7.9 percent.

Nearly 1.8 million tourists arrived in Sri Lanka last year contributing US$ 2.98 billion of earnings to the government revenues in 2015 compared to US$ 2.43 billion recorded during 2014.

Source : http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=2016/06/09/business/84107