Sri Lanka sees slight rebound
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Sri Lanka saw more foreign visitors in November with Western Europe, a key generating market rallying 40% percent to drive total arrivals up by 20%, the tourism promotion office was quoted saying.
Lanka Business Online said arrivals from the UK, Germany, Netherlands hit double digit increases.
Western Europe is a key generating market for the island’s beleaguered leisure industry which has been hard hit by an upsurge in violence.
The report said Sri Lanka’s tourism industry had lobbied Western governments to relax travel advisories ahead of the winter season. November December and January are usually to best months for the island’s leisure industry.
But recent terrorist attacks in the capital Colombo had again upset sentiment.
Eastern European visitors also grew strongly though numbers are under 2,000.
South Asia, a key market, was largely flat at 13,257 with India and Pakistan falling but Maldives showed an upturn.
With November’s 45,102 visitors Sri Lanka had received 432,000 visitors down 16.8% from 2006.
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