Tourist arrivals up in February
17 Mar 2011 2039 | World Travel News
Tourist arrivals in February 2011 have increased by 15 percent to 65,797 compared to the same month last year which was only 57,300. These figures reflect the rising confidence among visitors and tour operators in Sri Lanka, a Sri Lanka Tourism spokesman said.
He further said that the thousands of visitors arriving in Sri Lanka for the ICC Cricket World Cup have also resulted in an increase in arrivals. The government expects more than 750,000 tourists this year.The sustained positive growth will hopefully help achieve the target of the Sri Lanka Tourism Year 2011.
There was an increase in the number of arrivals from Western Europe, South Asia, East Asia, Middle East and North America. According to the figures issued by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority,the arrivals from North America increased 33.4 percent to 7,746 from 5,805 for the first two months while arrivals from Latin America increased 82.8 percent to 234 from 128 a year ago.
Arrivals from Western Europe increased 32.5 percent to 63,719 from 48,080 while Eastern Europe tourist increased 13.1 percent to 10,445 from 9,234. African arrivals increased 71.8 percent to 421 from 245 while arrivals from Middle East increased 21.8 percent to 5,359 from 4,396.
Arrivals from East Asia increased 31.4 percent to 14,229 from 10,832 while arrivals from South Asia increased 29.1 percent to 31,485 from 24,393.Arrivals from other countries increased 28.6 percent to 6,356 from 4,944 a year ago.
Source = dailynews.lk