Tourist arrivals up 14% in 2016 to 2.05 m

Thursday, 5 January 2017 00:41 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

in1-1

Statistics released by Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) for the last year show that over 2 million tourists visited the island in 2016.

According to SLTDA figures, Sri Lanka’s tourist arrivals in 2016 rose 14% with the arrival of 2,050,832 tourists compared to the 1,798,380 tourists arrived in 2015.

Most of the tourist arrivals were from Western Europe with 643,333 tourists visiting in 2016 recording a 16.5% increase over corresponding 2015 figures. For the month of December, 68,355 tourists arrived in the island, 9.3% more than in December 2015. Most of the tourists came from UK (188,159), followed by Germany (133,275), and France (96,440). Arrivals from North America rose by 15.8% with 98,376 visitors last year while during the month of December, arrivals rose 8.8% with 12,820 tourists arriving in the country.

Tourist arrivals from Eastern Europe increased in 2016 by 8.6% with the arrival of 161,171 visitors as arrivals from Russia declined by 5.9%.

Tourist arrivals from Middle East increased in the year by 6.5% with the arrival of 107,635 visitors.

Last year, 425,161 East Asians arrived in the island, recording an increase of 17.2%. The number of Chinese tourists arriving in the island rose by 26.4% to reach 271,577. In December, tourist arrivals from China increased by 21.9% with 19,318 Chinese tourists visiting the island.

Arrivals from South Asia, the other region from where most tourists come, increased by 11.8% to record 513,536 arrivals. Indian tourists contributed the most with 356,729 Indians visiting the country, recording a 12.8% increase in numbers.In the past year, 74,496 Australians arrived in the country, a 17.2% increase from the previous year.

in-1

Discover Kapruka, the leading online shopping platform in Sri Lanka, where you can conveniently send Gifts and Flowers to your loved ones for any event including Valentine ’s Day. Explore a wide range of popular Shopping Categories on Kapruka, including Toys, Groceries, Electronics, Birthday Cakes, Fruits, Chocolates, Flower Bouquets, Clothing, Watches, Lingerie, Gift Sets and Jewellery. Also if you’re interested in selling with Kapruka, Partner Central by Kapruka is the best solution to start with. Moreover, through Kapruka Global Shop, you can also enjoy the convenience of purchasing products from renowned platforms like Amazon and eBay and have them delivered to Sri Lanka.