Tourist arrivals up by 13.4%

Sri Lanka's tourism sector has continued to impress with February arrivals increasing by 13.4% having included more than 11,000 visitors to the island, the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), reported. Tourists and visitors from Western Europe and China showed a double digit growth.

Reports showed Western European arrivals having risen 13.7% to 41,484 compared, to the 36,497 visitors in February 2012. Visitors from UK showed a surge of 25.4% to 10,235, Germans increasing 13.6% to 6,738, with visitors from France increasing to 16.4% to 5,567 and the Netherlands having increased by 3.5% to 3,716 visitors.

Visitors from the Eastern region of Europe increased by 18.2% to 8,083, with tourist arrivals from the Middle East having increased slightly by 3.2% to 4,077 visitors.

South Asian arrivals increased by 15.5% with 22,191 tourists recorded to having visited the country.

In the previous year, visitors from India, only showed a 2.9% growth due to the changes in visa enforcements, but rose by 7.0% to 15,631 this year. Maldives showed a growth of 45.9% to 4,563 visitors.

Visitors from the region of East Asia, showed a rise of 7.6% to 10,039, while visitors from China showing an increase of 26.8% to 2,476 visitors.

(SP)