Tourist arrivals high

Sri Lanka's tourist arrivals jumped by 43.5 percent in March year-on-year, tourism board data showed on Monday, boosted by the recent cricket world cup, which the country co-hosted, and continually increasing post-war arrivals.

The number of visitors in the first quarter of 2011 rose 34.1 percent to 215,124. Arrivals have risen every month on a year-on-year basis since the end of the war in May 2009.

Arrivals hit a record high of 654,476 in 2010 with a 46.1 percent year-on-year rise and broke the previous record of 566,202 set in 2004, when a peace accord between the government and the separatist Tamil Tigers was in place. Tourism revenue jumped 64.8 percent year-on-year to a record $575.9 million in 2010, the central bank's latest data showed. The previous full-year record of $416.8 million was also set in 2004.

Reuters