Sri Lanka expects a revenue target of more than US$ 3 billion from tourism in 2015.

This is with the anticipation of 1.5 million to 1.8 million tourist arrivals this year, tourist industry sources said.

Tourism the fourth largest foreign exchange revenue earner for the country, touched the US$2.5 billion revenue mark in 2014. In addition the industry also for the first time in history passed the 1.5 million tourist arrivals for 2014 recording 1,527,153. This is a 19.8 percent increase as against the previous year of 1,274,593 during 2013, industry sources said.

Tourism Minister Naveen Dissanayake said at the inaugural ceremony of the 10th Hotel Show Colombo 2015 that this year they are expecting more than 1.5 million to 1.8 million tourist arrivals because a lot of countries have confidence in the government.

“We are now working closely with tourist industry sector persons and its stakeholders to ensure good practices for the sector. Therefore tourist industry sector persons and other stakeholders take decisions in consultation with each other for the benefit for the industry,”Minister Dissanayake said.