Sri Lanka tourism boom goes on

Year to date tourism arrivals to Sri Lanka were up 16% year on year to 543,205 by end July, hitting 90,338 arrivals for the month.

This represents a 7% increase compared to July 2011, with strong growth from Europe and Asia.

Arrivals from France jumped 30%, rose 28% from Germany, and 13% from the UK, with total arrivals from Western Europe reaching to 41,584 in July. East Asian visitors rose 27% to 10, 636, led by Japan up 30.3% to 2,366, and China up 31.2% to 1,966.

In the first seven months of 2012, UK was the second largest source of tourists at 61,618 up 5%, with Germany coming in third with 37,933 visitors up 26%, and France fourth, up 6% to 33,893. India continued to lead with arrivals up 3% to 96,990. 

By Mark Elliott, 17 August 2012, Friday 3:23 AM