MICE accounts to 11 % of arrivals

Vishmi Wijeratne

Tourist arrivals have gone up by 16 % during January to October 2012, Director Sri Lanka Tourism, Vipula Wanigasekara told Daily News Business that their contribution towards the tourist arrivals had been 11 %. The t organization said that their task to encourage tourism had been made easy by travel magazines and through other media promotion campaigns in Sri Lanka.

"Last year we were able to contribute by 12 % towards the tourism arrivals however that doesn't mean that our contribution had gone down it always depends on the number," he said.

Tourists at Pasikuda Pic by I. L. Mohomad Rizan

Though the world is going through severe economic problems it has not affected tourist arrivals in the country, tourist arrivals in October has increased by 15.5 % YoY to 80,379 and the total arrivals since the start of the year had elevated by 16 % to 774,151 according to the data issued by the Sri Lanka Tourist Board. The highest amount of tourist arrivals in terms of region has been from Western Europe, the arrivals for the month of October has arisen by 3.7 % YoY to 24,303 thus adding up to 293,472 arrivals since January this year. This 17 % increase shows the sustainability in the countries tourist industry.

The Sri Lanka Tourist Board records state that the majority of the arrivals from Western Europe have been from the United Kingdom. The arrivals had mounted to 8,767 which is a significant increase of 18.3 %. The next highest amount of arrivals from the same region was recorded from Germany with 5,485 arrivals which is a significant rise of 6.9%. A momentous increases of 193,465 arrivals from the South Asian region was recorded in the month of October, this is a 3.2 % increase from

last years 22,689. However the records also suggest that the arrivals from India had dropped by 1.5 % to 17,654 during the month but still remain the highest single source of arrivals on a monthly and cumulative basis.

The arrivals of China had mounted up to 2,200 this year from 1099 last year. The arrivals from the East Asian region had gone up by 31.1% YoY 100,678 from January. Records state that the arrivals for the month of October from the region had increased from 8,261 last year to 11,168. According to the records arrivals from Russia had grown up to 18.9 % YoY to 2,559 and arrivals from Ukrain had increased drastically by 79.9% to 2,600 visitors.

Meanwhile records of tourist arrivals to Maldives had grown by 6.9 % YoY in September with 76,806 visitors. Thus the total arrivals stood at 691,608 on a cumulative basis showing an increase of 3.4% YoY. Maldives continued to attract more tourists from China with 25,178 during September as against 20,107 in the previous year. However the arrivals from the European region had declined by 3.2 % YoY to 33,975 arrivals during the month.