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.
