Sri Lanka records highest number of tourist arrivals since 60's

Aug 18 (NIA) – The Sri Lankan government on Thursday said that tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka had hit an all-time high in July with the number of tourist arrivals exceeding 200,000 in one month alone.

In a statement, Sri Lanka’s Tourism Ministry said that with the arrival of 209,351 tourists, it was the highest number recorded in a single month since records began in the sixties.

“What is significant is that the July arrivals figure is higher than even the figure recorded last December which is traditionally Sri Lanka’s highest grossing month in the tourism calendar. Last December too was a record at the time with 206,114 arrivals but the July performance has eclipsed this mark,” the statement said.

Sri Lanka’s Tourism Minister, John Amaratunga said that the government was “very happy” that its efforts were paying off.
He added that a worldwide destination promotion campaign on a multi-media platform will be launched towards November this year.
“This campaign will essentially target the high season traffic and will use digital platforms in a big way,” the Minister said.

According to data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) for the period January to July 2016, Western Europe has been the biggest contributor in terms of numbers generating 380,725 visitors. This region generated 321,472 visitors over the same period last year.

The second highest generating region was South Asia which is dominated by India with 283,689 visitors while the third highest generating region was East Asia dominated by China which produced 250,274 visitors during the period January to July 2016.

Both of these markets have seen significant growth compared to the same period last year.

In terms of growth, according to country-specific data China with 163,473 visitors continues to show the highest growth in arrivals at 36.6 percent for the period January to July 2016. The second highest growth in arrivals has been from Australia with 38,657 visitors showing a growth rate of 19.8 percent followed by the UK with 110,649 visitors at 18.7 percent.

“We are happy to see growth all round especially in emerging markets like Australia which is very encouraging. We are on course to another record breaking year,” the Minister noted.

Sri Lanka’s Tourism sector was one of the worst affected during the island country’s 30 year civil war between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels.

Since the end of the war in May 2009, the tourism industry has witnessed a rising trend with several international travel agents terming the island as an ’emerging tourist destination’ in the world.