Tourist arrivals up 46 percent last year

A total of 654,476 tourists had visited Sri Lanka last year, according to the Sri Lanka Tourist Development Authority (SLTDA) sources.

Tourist arrivals too had registered a 46.1 percent increase, the target set for the year of 600,000 tourists by over 50,000 arrivals.

Tourists arrivals amounted to 84,627 during month of December, being 48.8 percent compared to the same period last year.

Only 447,890 tourists arrived in the country in 2009. With the relaxation of warnings by many European countries following the defeat of terrorism, there has been an upsurge in tourist arrivals, particularly from Western nations.

Last year there were 40,216 tourist arrivals from North America, representing 21,213 from Canada and 19,093 from the United States, which was a 61.2 percent increase compared to 2009.

SLTDA resources noted that there was a significant increase in tourist arrivals from France which amounted to 31,285 in 2010. Arrivals from European countries registered an upsurge of 51 percent compared to year 2009 with 256,861 tourist arrivals.

The majority of them amounting to 105,496 from the United Kingdom, followed by 45,727 from Germany.

There were 35,517 tourist arrivals from Eastern Europe and 13,278 from Russia. Arrivals from Eastern Europe registered a 35 percent increase compared to arrivals in 2009.

There was a 49 percent increase in arrivals from Africa with a majority of them being from South Africa.

The number of Middle East tourists had increased by 58.1 percent compared to the year 2009, which amounted to 37,540 arrivals last year.

Arrivals from East Asia had also taken an upward trend with a 41.6 percent increase compared to year 2009.

The majority of East Asian tourists were from Japan, amounting to 14,352, followed by Malaysia numbering 13,367. There were 10,430 tourists from China and 11,875 Singaporean arrivals. There were 175,694 South Asian tourist arrivals, while the majority of them being from India, comprising 126,882 from Indians followed by 35,791 from Maldives and 9,148 from Pakistan.

Countries in Australasia have also found Sri Lanka a popular tourist venue and 37,290 Australasian tourists arrived while 33,456 of them were from Australia. 3,487 from New Zealanders.

According to SLTDA, around four million tourists, equivalent to 20 percent of the country's population, would visit Sri Lanka in 2012.