Tourist arrivals in August rose by 12% to 186,288, bringing the first eight months’ tally to 1.36 million, up 16% from a year earlier.
August arrivals were however lower than the record monthly high of 209,351 achieved in July.
Nevertheless, tourist arrivals have enjoyed increases for 88 consecutive months in Sri Lanka.
Chinese tourists continue to dominate arrivals for the second consecutive month, relegating Indians to second place. Arrivals from China in August amounted to 27,519, up by 11%, bringing the year-to-date total to 190,992, up 32%.
Indian arrivals rose by 3.7% to 24,418 in August while India topped year-to-date figures with 224,924 arrivals, up by 16%. In July Chinese arrivals peaked to a high of 30,631, up 22% from a year earlier. Indians amounted to only 27,665. The previous occasion when Chinese tourists dominated Indians was in February, with the former producing 32,186 arrivals against 26,559 from India.
The traditional UK market saw a healthy growth of 14% to 20,475 arrivals in August, pushing its cumulative figure to 131,124, up 18%. Germany and France too recorded double-digit growth. Western Europe remained the largest regional source with 65,000 arrivals in June, up 16% and 445,667 up to August, a growth of 18%.
Total arrivals hit a record high of 1.8 million in 2015, while revenue from the island nation’s leisure sector also peaked at $ 2.86 billion last year.
Tourism Minister John Amaratunga has said the country’s tourism industry was targeting 2.5 million visitors this year and revenue of $ 3.5 billion.
www.ft.lk
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