Saturday, 15 March 2014 00:01
-
- {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka rose by 24.5% in February to 141,878 from a year earlier reflecting continued buoyancy.
As per provisional data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), in the first two months of this year a total of 288,453 tourists arrived in the island recording a 28.5% increase from the 224,511 came during the corresponding period in 2013.
Arrivals from North America rose by 14% with 12,398 visitors for the first two months in the year while 98,936 tourist arrivals were recorded from Western Europe rising 16.7%.
Arrivals from Eastern Europe increased 55.5% with the arrival of 22,927 tourists for the month while arrivals from Russia increased by 92% to 9,723.
Tourist arrivals from Middle East rose in February by 16.8% to 4,919.
The first two months of the year recorded 50,88 East Asians as arriving, an increase of 57.6%. China recorded a 119.2% increase with the arrival of 21,098 in the first two months of the year. Arrivals from South Asia rose by 22.9% in February 2014 with 25,979 tourists visiting while, arrivals from India increased 21.5% to 17,534 in February.
In the first two months of the year, 8,903 Australians arrived in the country, a 12.9% increase from the previous year.
Sri Lanka met its tourist target of 1.2 million for the year 2013 with arrivals increasing by 26.7% from the 1,005,605 in 2012. Earnings from tourism grew by 35% to $ 1.4 billion in 2013.
