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Wednesday, 23 January 2013 02:56 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Cheranka Mendis
December 2012 holds the all-time high record for monthly arrivals in the history of tourism, having welcomed 122,252 tourists, resulting in a total arrival figure of 1,005,605 for the year. This marked a 17.5% increase from the previous year.
Breaking the 100,000 boundary in November with 102,202 arrivals, the high number of arrivals during the year led the country to surpass its initial target of 950,000 tourists for the year and went on to reach the anticipated one million tourist mark on 30 December.
In December, tourists from Western Europe formed the largest component of travellers with 43,699 tourists from the region, a 29.6% increase from December 2011, with South Asia coming in second with 27,445 arrivals (6.1%). The third largest component of tourists came from East Asia (16,658), followed by Australasia (10,864), Eastern Europe (10,308), North America (6,475), and Middle East (6,073). Tourists from Africa and Latin America were at 552 and 178 respectively.
Meanwhile, neighbour India managed to hold the lead position with the largest number of arrivals from a single country, reaching 18,941 in December.
Tourism...
Recognised as a traditional market, the UK, which has established itself as the second biggest tourist generator to Sri Lanka, recorded an increase of 27.8% with 12,861 tourists visiting Sri Lanka.
Taking up the third, fourth and fifth positions are Australia, the aldives, and France, with arrivals recording 9,987 (11.4%), 6.564 (1.5%), and 5,551 (51.2%).
On the whole, the year ended on a high note, beyond expectations, having surpassed the initial target of 950,000 on 18 December and going on to hit the one million mark on 30 December.
Sri Lanka Tourism Chairman Bashwara Gunawardena speaking to the Daily FT yesterday expressed satisfaction over the progress made in the past year, adding that the target was to reach 1.25 million arrivals this year.
Confident that the luck of the past years will continue, Gunawardena assured that various programs had been lined up for the year which would help realise the goals.
“We will promote the identified emerging markets – India, China, Japan, Korea, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan – during the year,” he said. “We have organised a large promotion campaign in India starting with Bangalore and moving on to other key cities in the country. A similar campaign will be launched in China as well. We are currently discussing the possibilities of taking this to other countries.”
When assessing 2012, the top tourist market for Sri Lanka was India, bringing in a total of 176,340 tourists, a 2.9% increase from 2011. The UK holds the second place with 114,218 tourists (7.7%) and Germany comes in third with 71,642 (28.2%).
