Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka in May was up by a hefty 42% over a year earlier but is taking a breather after the conclusion of a busy winter season, latest data showed.
Tourist arrivals in the month of May recorded 35,213 tourists to the country, marking a percentage change of 42.3 per cent from May 2009 to May this year.
Arrivals have risen for 12 straight months since the end of the war in May last year and were up 31.2 percent in the June 2009-May 2010 period compared to a year earlier.
The arrivals were, however, a fall from April statistics, recorded as 38,300. The regions that had increased tourists to Sri Lanka last month were Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, South Asia and Australia. The largest arrivals were from South Asia, with India marked as the number one appreciator of the Lankan beauty and business.
The United Kingdom, which ruled the number one position months back, fell to a mere 4,469 while India showed the influx of 10,689 tourists. Some other countries that recorded high arrivals were France, Maldives, Australia and Canada. The lowest-ever arrivals were from South Africa, which recorded only 35 people coming in.
Earnings from tourism jumped 68.8 per cent in the first four months in this year to $ 174.9 million, the Central Bank's latest data showed. Sri Lanka is targeting 2.5 million arrivals and $ 2 billion in earnings by 2016.
The hotel and travel index on the Colombo Stock Exchange has almost tripled since the war's end, outpacing the rise in the overall stock index, which has more than doubled since then. Tourism is one of the main foreign exchange earners of the $ 42 billion economy along with remittances, garments and tea. The revenue from tourism was $ 350 million in 2009.
source - www.dailymirror.lk
1 comment:
Sri Lanka really needs some foreign currency right now. I hope it keeps on increasing.
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