Indian arrivals increase while Western markets dip

INDIAN, Chinese and Maldivian tourist arrivals increased in the first 11 months of last year according to the latest figures released by the Sri Lanka Tourist Board. However the German and UK arrivals continued to decrease despite being the high season.

The Indian arrivals increased to 102,687 in the first 11 months of 2005 as against 93,880 in the previous year. The Maldives arrivals too showed an upward trend from 12, 646 in the first 11 months in 2004 to 22,506 in 2005. This is an increased of 78 percent.

China opened market for Sri Lanka in the last few years too performed well with the arrivals showing a 3.3 percent increase while Singapore arrivals too increased by 44 percent.

The US and Canada tourists too increased by over 50 percent while New Zealand and Australian arrivals also increased by around 20 percent.

However the Western European market, the second best market for Sri Lanka tourism, kept on dropping with German arrivals dipping by 20 percent. The UK tourism market too reduced by around 10 percent while the Austrian and Italian market dipped by nearly 50 percent.

The overall tourist arrival figures (498,137) up to November 2005 also dropped in the first nine months. (AGP)